


foxlike

by Hajinnie



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Explicit Sexual Content, Fantasy, Japanese Culture, Japanese Mythology & Folklore, Kitsune, M/M, Mystery, Other, Priests, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, smut is in chapter four
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-10-28 00:14:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20769296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hajinnie/pseuds/Hajinnie
Summary: Kyungsoo's life is saved many years ago by someone whom he believes to be a kitsune. When he stumbles upon the mysterious Chanyeol, Kyungsoo has reasons to believe that Chanyeol may be the same kitsune, as well is hiding something from him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> *This fic was originally "Fox white", which I had deleted a while ago. A portion of this fic has been rewritten and Chansoo's roles have been reversed, although their characterizations remain the same. 
> 
> *This fic is set in 17th century Japan. Kyungsoo has long-ish hair that falls just below his shoulders :))
> 
> *For those of you who aren't familiar with what a kitsune is. This article should help you [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inari_%C5%8Ckami)  
[Twitter](https://twitter.com/hajinnie)  
[CC](https://curiouscat.me/hajinnie)

Kyungsoo was an eleven-year-old boy trying to make it through the boring winter sometime in the 17th century during the early Edo period.

There was nothing to do at home and it was too cold to go outside either. Kyungsoo wasn’t allowed to help out the women with household chores. He also wasn’t allowed to go out of the house and do the supposedly “manly” duties, because his father and older brothers deemed him too young for it yet.

Thus, Kyungsoo was stuck within the four walls of his house, not even allowed to go out and play with his friends. The only things he could mostly look forward to were mealtimes and that would constitute as his typical average day.

It was closer to the start of winter than it was to the start of spring, so Kyungsoo knew there was still a bit way to go until all the snow melted and it was warm enough for his mother to allow him to go out and play.

All Kyungsoo had to entertain himself during the long winter days was a ball that his father had gifted him from one of his trips.

Kyungsoo would toss the ball to a wall and wait for it to bounce back, as an attempt to pass the time.

The wall did reflect the ball back but it was hardly responsive, unlike if he was playing with someone else, so Kyungsoo still got easily bored. It didn’t help that he had a rather short attention span too, which was common for someone his age.

Kyungsoo was beyond bored and even though he knew that his mother would scold him for bothering her while she was busy doing something else, Kyungsoo still tried to find her and try his luck to ask her if she wanted to play along with him.

Kyungsoo carried the ball in his hands and left his room, sliding the paper doors open and running out into the courtyard in the dead of winter. It was a shortcut to the other part of the house, where his mother and sisters usually spent most of the day at.

The air was still and freezing outside. The trees in the courtyard were dead and bare in the middle of the winter. The snow was fresh on the ground and the large pond in the middle of the courtyard was frozen over.

Kyungsoo’s father was a retainer of the lord of their domain, which gave Kyungsoo and his family the luxury of living in a large house.

While scampering down the courtyard, Kyungsoo couldn’t help but pause midway when he saw the figure of a white fox with a red bib around its neck among the dead bushes. If it weren’t for the fox’s glistening amber eyes and its bib, Kyungsoo would have missed it in the all-white landscape too.

The fox was looking back at Kyungsoo, frozen and unmoving. Kyungsoo had never seen a white fox. He had only seen red foxes before.

Red foxes were more common in the area and white foxes were thought to be rare. While red foxes were associated with the kitsune, a mischievous and potentially malicious demon, the white fox was seen as the benevolent messenger of the goddess Inari, 

Kyungsoo thought that the fox might have someone taking care of it because of the red bib around its neck, thinking that it was maybe lost from home and in search of food.

Although he didn’t think that the fox was a messenger of Inari herself, Kyungsoo still felt in him to offer it food especially in the cold.

The atmosphere was quiet, muffled by the snow. Kyungsoo tried calling out for the fox, his voice being the only thing that was heard in the vicinity.

“Come here,” Kyungsoo cooed, reaching his hand out and slowly approaching the fox, “You must be cold, there’s no food here but I can give you some.”

The fox remained in its position as if it was simply observing him.

While trying to reach the fox, Kyungsoo tripped on a rock hidden beneath the snow, sending him falling face flat on the soft snow which cushioned his fall.

Kyungsoo was unharmed and quickly regained his composure to get back on his feet. Kyungsoo did unwillingly let go of the ball while he was falling, only to see that his ball had rolled out onto the middle of the frozen pond.

Forgetting the fox for a while, Kyungsoo stepped onto the ice to reach his ball. Kyungsoo remembered his mother warning him not to do such a thing but her advice was far in the back of his head at the time.

“Got it,” Kyungsoo spoke to himself, picking the ball up and then realizing that the sounds he was hearing were that of the ice cracking beneath him.

Kyungsoo was stunned in panic, especially when he saw the ice breaking fast. Before he could shout for help, the ice supporting his feet gave way and sent him plummeting into the depths of the icy water which was two to three times deeper than he was taller.

Kyungsoo knew how to swim but it was almost impossible for him to try to even float to the surface, whatnot with his thick clothes and the water weighing down on him. The cold water was dense too and Kyungsoo had all the air in him knocked out by the sudden fall.

Kyungsoo could see his ball floating at the surface, from beneath the water as he desperately struggled to reach the light above.

Before Kyungsoo was sinking even deeper, numb from the cold and from the lack of air, the water around him moved at the sudden splash of a person diving into the water. The next thing he knew, he was being dragged up to the surface to meet the even chillier air above.

Kyungsoo didn’t manage to see who it was, except that this person dressed in white and a glimpse of red. Kyungsoo just assumed it was his mother or one of his sisters who had saved him.

Kyungsoo was quickly rushed back to his room, where it was warmer. This person quickly looked around his room for anything they could use to cover him up.

Kyungsoo crept up to his sleeping mat on the floor and he managed to see that this person was not anyone familiar to him. He appeared to be a young man with dark hair, wearing a white formal kimono and had a red scarf around his neck that was also dripping wet, although seemingly unbothered by it.

“Take off your clothes, here,” The man in the white kimono instructed Kyungsoo, handing him some blankets and dry clothes he found in Kyungsoo’s closet.

Kyungsoo did as he was told. He didn’t question much because he knew he would be in trouble for this, and it was wise to listen to the next adult around, which happened to be this man in the white kimono.

The man in the white kimono rolled up his wet sleeves so they wouldn’t bother Kyungsoo, while he helped Kyungsoo out of the wet clothes and was trying to wrap Kyungsoo in the blankets.

“A-aren’t you cold?” Kyungsoo trembled, pulling the blankets closer to his person.

“I’m alright, worry about yourself,” The man in the white kimono then lit a candle in its holder, placing it close to Kyungsoo.

“Thank you for helping me,” Kyungsoo’s teeth chattered.

“Be careful next time, alright?” The man advised him, “When you feel all warmed up, go to your mother and tell her what happened. Don’t hide things like this from her.”

Kyungsoo nodded, still shivering.

The man then produced Kyungsoo’s ball from inside his kimono, handing it back to Kyungsoo, “Here you go. Now don’t do that again.”

“I will,” Kyungsoo obeyed, a bit happy that he got his ball back even though it seemed all trivial now.

Before Kyungsoo could look back up again to ask this man who he was, he vanished.

Kyungsoo later told his mother about what happened and she scolded him for trying to walk on a frozen pond despite her warnings. Kyungsoo told her about the man in the white kimono too but nobody in the house seemed to know what he was talking about.

Everyone assumed that Kyungsoo had just been hallucinating because he was drowning at the time.

While it had indeed started out as a boring winter day, it certainly turned out to not be the case whatnot with almost drowning in an icy pond and how this event would relate to Kyungsoo again in the future.

For the rest of the winter, Kyungsoo was not allowed to even step out in the courtyard as punishment. He did spend some of his days looking out at the courtyard through the windows, hoping to see the man in the white kimono so Kyungsoo could thank him.

Towards the end of winter, Kyungsoo did see the same white fox again in the courtyard. This time, he saw the fox looking back at him as if it was just there to observe Kyungsoo.

Seeing that, Kyungsoo went to the kitchen to get some food to leave for the fox. But when he returned with the dish of food, the fox was gone.

Kyungsoo never saw the man in the white kimono with the red scarf or the same white fox in his courtyard or anywhere else ever again. Although he eventually forgot how the man looked like, he never forgot what happened and the details of that day.

And most certainly, Kyungsoo never forgot how he owed this man his life for saving him.

Twelve years later, Kyungsoo was now a grown twenty-three-years old man. He was now a priest in training, who was about to become a fully-fledged priest soon.

As the youngest son with several older brothers who would inherit his father’s position and duties, Kyungsoo had to leave his home to find his own way in the world as was usual for a man of his time.

With his parent’s help, he was able to join the temple of Amaterasu, the sun goddess and primary deity of Japan. Kyungsoo was not a very religious person but he respected tradition and the spiritual belief of his people.

Because Kyungsoo was still a young priest, he was sent to live in and maintain a shrine dedicated to Amaterasu in the middle of a mountainous forest, as part of his initiation rites to become a fully fledged priest.

Living in the middle of the forest, Kyungsoo had to go out to hunt for his own food with a bow and arrow. He mostly hunted boars, rabbits, deers, birds and sometimes even foxes for food.

When Kyungsoo was out hunting, he had to skip wearing the black ritualistic kimonos that the priests wore, and the headgear that came with it. He opted for more comfortable and duller clothes that helped him blend in with the surroundings.

It was to camouflage himself from the animals, and Kyungsoo would be as quiet as possible while he was out hunting so they wouldn’t know he was coming.

That day, Kyungsoo spotted a large bird perched on the tree branches. It was big enough to keep him fed for a few days and Kyungsoo was already innately planning on how to cook it, imagining the taste of it.

Hiding behind a bush from behind the bird’s view, Kyungsoo aimed his bow with an arrow ready to fire. Kyungsoo mouthed a silent prayer for the bird, just like he did before every kill. The bird, however, took off just a split second before Kyungsoo released his arrow.

The arrow failed to hit the target and curved back to the ground in its trajectory.

Disgruntled, Kyungsoo sighed and looked around the forest for any other choices he might have.

As luck would have it, Kyungsoo saw some bushes rustling and he made his way there, hoping that it was probably some small animal he could kill too.

When Kyungsoo came close, he parted through the bush with a knife ready in his hand.

There, between the bushes, he instead found a man in a white formal kimono with a red scarf on his neck, with a dead forest rat in his mouth and an arrow in his leg.

Kyungsoo was surprised at a few things. Some of the things include how he did not notice another person there, why there was another person there in the first place, and why this person had a dead rat in its mouth.

The man was groaning, whimpering on the ground with a bleeding leg because of an arrow that Kyungsoo knew to be his.

“I’m so sorry,” Kyungsoo quickly knelt on the ground, inspecting the man’s calf, “I didn’t know you were there. I was trying to hunt and I missed so the arrow must have hit you.”

The man dropped the rat from its mouth and looked back into Kyungsoo’s eyes, with eyes filled with pain and his voice croaking, “Please don’t kill me.”

“I won’t kill you,” Kyungsoo quickly replied, frantically deciding on what to do next, “I just want to help you. I have a place; I’ll take you back there and treat your wounds. It’s not safe out here.”

The man could only nod back in return, straining from the pain of the arrow wound.

This man appeared to be taller and bigger than Kyungsoo but he was still strong enough to give him a piggyback ride to the shrine. Kyungsoo did not realize it but the man managed to pick up the dead rat and slipped it into his kimono.

Even with the added weight which would tire him out faster, Kyungsoo walked as fast as he could back to the shrine. It was his fault that this man was injured, so Kyungsoo saw that it was also his responsibility to tend to it.

Once they were back in the small hut outside the shrine that Kyungsoo lived in, he placed the man on a bamboo mat and quickly rushed to the hearth to start a fire.

Kyungsoo placed a kettle filled with water over the fire, and while it was warming up, he tore some of his clothes to use as bandages.

The man, in his now dirtied white kimono, was groaning in pain on the mat Kyungsoo had placed him on. The arrow was still lodged in his calf near the ankle, so it hadn’t bled out too much yet.

Once the kettle was hot, Kyungsoo poured the hot water into a ceramic bowl and placed it beside the clothes on the floor.

Without even being asked to, the man lifted his kimono for Kyungsoo so it rode up all the way above his knees, revealing smooth, pale and unblemished legs.

Even in the midst of the moment, Kyungsoo couldn’t help but wonder how someone so seemingly flawless like that would be doing alone in the forest, assuming that the man was probably some sheltered rich town person.

Kyungsoo quickly pushed the thought away and knelt in front of the man, who had his head thrown back and was letting out a strangled cry.

“This is going to hurt a bit,” Kyungsoo warned, feeling bad for the man, as he inspected the arrow’s entry into the wound, “It doesn’t look bent and it’s not in too deep so I’m going to pull it out.”

The man bit his lower lip and nodded, grabbing onto Kyungsoo’s shoulders.

“On the count of one, two, three,” Kyungsoo counted, slowly pulling the arrow head out of the man’s legs.

The man began to cry, digging his nails into Kyungsoo’s shoulders while bracing the pain.

Once Kyungsoo had the arrow head out, he quickly pressed the cloth onto the wound, pressing on it to maintain pressure and stop the man from bleeding out.

Then, Kyungsoo wiped the wound with another cloth dipped in the warm water before using the last piece of cloth as a bandage to tie around the wounded leg.

“Thank you,” The man gasped, moving back up the mat and lying down on the floor.

“I’ll get you something to eat. You must be hungry,” Kyungsoo offered, moving around the hut as he discarded the arrow head and threw the water away.

“No, it's fine,” The man refused, pulling out the dead rat from his kimono.

Kyungsoo saw this and had to stop and stare, “You can’t eat that. I’ll cook it for you if you want.”

The man didn’t listen to Kyungsoo and rolled up his sleeves to his elbows before taking a bite off the rat’s head.

Kyungsoo retched when he saw the man doing just that, turning his head away to avoid looking, in case the man found him to be rude. It was first and foremost, odd, but Kyungsoo didn’t feel like it was his place to stop the man either.

When Kyungsoo looked back, the man was chewing through the flesh like it was a fruit and spitting out the fur. There was some blood on the man’s hands and around his lips.

“Oh, do you want some?” The man offered, holding up the half-eaten rat to Kyungsoo.

Kyungsoo refused, “Sorry, no.”

“Alright then,” The man continued eating, chewing and swallowing the rat.

The fur was spat out onto the floor and when Kyungsoo dared himself to look again, he saw the man dangling the rat’s tail above his head before swallowing it whole.

“Are you sure you’re alright eating like that? If you’re really hungry, I can go out to hunt because it's still early,” Kyungsoo recommended.

“It’s fine, I eat like this a lot,” The man spoke up, stretching his arms above his head, dropping his sleeve even further down his arm.

When the man in white kimono did so, Kyungsoo also observed the scarf the man wore around his neck.

Suddenly, Kyungsoo’s memory was jogged and he was beginning to remember and make connections to this man in his hut, with the man who had saved him that winter day many years ago.

Now that Kyungsoo had a clear look of this man’s face and getup, Kyungsoo couldn’t help but think that was the same man he had been hoping to meet again for so long.

“What is your name? Where are you from?” Kyungsoo immediately asked, sitting back on the floor beside the man.

The man stared at Kyungsoo for a while, with a slightly open mouth, before looking away and answering his questions, “You can call me Chanyeol. I’m from…around here.”

“-but the closest village is two days away by foot. Where is this’ around here’ you speak of?” Kyungsoo pointed out, starting to feel suspicious.

As if Chanyeol could feel Kyungsoo’s suspicion towards him, Chanyeol continued, “Why do you need to know?”

“Because there have been lots of incidents of travelers passing through this mountain who ended up being robbed by a group of bandits. Since no one lives in this area and you’re out here all alone, I need to make sure you’re not here to try and rob me either,” Kyungsoo asserted.

“I’m not a bandit, I was just looking for food,” Chanyeol revealed, looking even more perplexed, “Who are you anyway?”

“I’m Kyungsoo,” Kyungsoo introduced himself, “I’m a priest who is tasked to watch over the Amaterasu shrine in this mountain. I’ve been here for two months now.”

“I see,” Chanyeol softened up, “I’m not a bandit though. You don’t have to worry, I don’t wish to rob or hurt you. I’ll leave once I can walk so I won’t be a bother to you.”

“I know,” Kyungsoo admitted, “You’re dressed too well to be a bandit. No bandit would wear a kimono that white or expensive like yours. In fact, no one would even be wearing clothes like that this deep in the mountains.”

“Then why did you ask me if I was a bandit or not?” Chanyeol inquired.

“I just wanted to make sure,” Kyungsoo shrugged, “-because I feel like I knew you from somewhere. Have we met before?”

Chanyeol shook his head, “I’m not sure.”

“Really? It feels like I’ve seen you before. Do you remember saving a young boy from drowning more than ten years ago?” Kyungsoo questioned.

Chanyeol gulped, furrowing his forehead, “N-no. I don’t think so.”

“Well, maybe I’m mistaken,” Kyungsoo assumed, “-but what is someone like you doing out here anyway?”

“I told you I was just looking for food,” Chanyeol repeated.

“This is a far place to go out to look for food though,” Kyungsoo made it known.

“I just go wherever the hunt takes me,” Chanyeol tried to smile it off but ended up doing so awkwardly.

“How do you do that without any weapons or traps though? And dressed like that to boot. You look like you belong in the court, not here,” Kyungsoo pointed out.

“With my hands and legs,” Chanyeol lifted his two hands to Kyungsoo, showing his palms. Chanyeol then continued, “-but my leg is injured now and I won’t be able to hunt for a while.”

Kyungsoo accepted this explanation but he still wasn’t entirely convinced and was suspicious still about Chanyeol.

Kyungsoo didn’t think that Chanyeol was a bandit or someone with malicious intent towards him. It still did puzzle him how someone who appeared so untouched, delicate and was wearing the finest kimono around would be doing so far out in the forest all alone, days away from the nearest village.

On top of that, Chanyeol didn’t look like he was camping or hiking out in the forests because he was empty-handed when Kyungsoo found him, except for that dead rat in his mouth of course.

Even though Chanyeol denied it, there was a part of Kyungsoo which believed that Chanyeol was the same man who had saved him from drowning in the pond many winters ago.

As a priest, it was Kyungsoo’s job to deal with the supernatural. He was trained to perform numerous cleaning and exorcism rituals to appease the evil spirits and deities while inviting the appraisal of the good and nurturing spirits.

So it didn’t escape his mind that Chanyeol was possibly not human because there were no other explanations to answer Chanyeol’s odd appearance in such a place.

Kyungsoo already had a strong feeling that this human appearance Chanyeol was showing was not the actual form behind this persona named “Chanyeol”. It was, after all, common for beasts and spirits to act and dress odd when they assumed human forms because they were unaware of contemporary social cues and customs.

Chanyeol seemed to fit all that criteria already but Kyungsoo had no way of telling, and he still had to be careful in case Chanyeol turned out to be a benevolent beast or spirit.

Kyungsoo went out to hunt again before it got dark, leaving Chanyeol in the hut because he was unable to go anywhere with an injured foot.

While Kyungsoo was out hunting, it also gave him time to think if Chanyeol really was the same person who had saved him. And if Chanyeol was not human, then what was he?

When Kyungsoo came across a red fox during his hunt, he was instantly reminded of the white fox he saw in his courtyard many winters ago. He then remembered the man who saved him from the pond, who appeared to be similar to Chanyeol, despite Chanyeol himself denying the fact.

If Chanyeol had been a guest or someone known to Kyungsoo’s family to be in their courtyard, his family would recognize him, which they did not. Otherwise, there was no way someone would have made it into their house uninvited, whatnot with the guards they had because of Kyungsoo’s father’s position as an important samurai in their domain.

It didn’t actually seem like a far-fetched thought but it was almost as if the white fox and the man who saved him were the same entity, able to shape shift between the two like the folklore of the kitsune. Except for this time the fox was white like the messengers of Inari, and not red like in the tales of the mischievous and potentially evil kitsune.

It wasn’t confirmed yet but Kyungsoo already suspected that something about Chanyeol was off, and it was the suspicion that Chanyeol was definitely not human. And that it had something to do with a fox.

There were a few methods to tell whether an individual was a human or actually a transfiguring fox in disguise. There were also very obvious traits such as the human form of these transfiguring foxes, possessing the sexual organs of both men and women because they were neither any of them.

Kyungsoo wasn’t really going to get Chanyeol to strip naked in front of him anytime yet though and decided to rely on the other methods that were known to man.

Kyungsoo managed to catch the red fox he saw in the forest not far from the hut near the shrine. The fox was hit in the arrow in its back and was immobilized when Kyungsoo found it. This time, it seemed like a very regular fox that wasn’t a mystical being.

After muttering a prayer for the fox, Kyungsoo took out his knife and slit its throat to kill the fox. It wasn’t against the teachings to kill an animal, as long as it was done right and in order to sustain the life of another, which in this case would be providing food for Kyungsoo and Chanyeol.

Satisfied with the kill, Kyungsoo brought the dead fox back to the hut near the shrine where Chanyeol was waiting for him.

Kyungsoo noticed the face of disgust Chanyeol made when he threw the body of the dead fox onto the floor of the hut, right before removing the fur and skinning it.

Chanyeol scampered away on his hands and feet, crawling into a corner of the small hut near the sleeping mats, where he curled his legs up to his chest and hugged himself.

“It’s getting dark soon, there’s a creek not far from here. Do you want to go take a bath first while I prepare the meat? If you want to, you should do it before then,” Kyungsoo asked, skinning the fox near the burning hearth, “I still have to do the sunset prayer service too so it’ll take a bit of time before we can eat.”

“No thank you. Besides, I don’t think I can walk very far with my injury,” Chanyeol quickly replied, “You can just go ahead and eat by yourself. Don’t worry about me.”

“-but you’ll get hungry,” Kyungsoo pointed out.

“I’ll be alright for the night,” Chanyeol assured, trying his best to avoid eating the kill that Kyungsoo had gotten, “I’ll catch a rabbit or something tomorrow morning by myself.”

“-with that kind of injury and no hunting equipment on you?” Kyungsoo raised an eyebrow, eyeing Chanyeol’s visibly bandaged calf.

“I’ll manage somehow,” Chanyeol asserted, “Don’t worry about me.”

“Alright then,” Kyungsoo replied, having finished skinning the fox and was about to cut its meat into parts to cook over the fire on the hearth.

For the rest of the evening, Chanyeol remained in that one corner of the hut. Kyungsoo was also discreetly observing Chanyeol from the other end of the small hut, but all Chanyeol did was sit there and look at him occasionally.

Kyungsoo still suspected something but he had nothing to back up his suspicions yet. Kyungsoo didn’t want to take risks yet, because there still was a possibility that Chanyeol was just some rich person judging by his clothes, who had somehow gotten lost deep in the forests.

After Kyungsoo was finished with the daily sunset prayer service in the shrine beside the hut, he undressed from the prayer robes and went back to the hut, where the fire on the hearth was now burning bright and ready.

Kyungsoo saw Chanyeol there, sitting on the floor while he threw the chopped firewood into the sunken hearth.

“The fire is ready, you can cook if you want now,” Chanyeol informed, moving further up the floor on his butt until he was sitting on the mat.

“I thought you said you weren’t eating,” Kyungsoo remembered, as he walked to the small kitchen area to throw the chopped fox meat into a pan, before bringing it to the hearth.

“I’m not eating. I just thought that I’d keep you company while I’m here,” Chanyeol affirmed, sitting back at the corner of the hut while the smell of fox meat being cooked on the hearth wafted through the small hut and out the window.

“Are you sure you don’t want anything?” Kyungsoo cautiously asked, wary and careful not to say the wrong words in case Chanyeol really did turn out to be a malicious fox in disguise.

“I’ll just have some…water,” Chanyeol answered, seemingly cautious about something else too.

“Sure,” Kyungsoo nodded, and then asked, “So, how do I get you back to your home?”

“Oh, you don’t have to. I can get myself back home once my leg is better. I know the way there,” Chanyeol tried to turn down.

“-but it’s dangerous to be alone and unarmed in the mountains. I did tell about the bandits in this area, haven’t I? You’re going to attract their attention all dressed like that and alone,” Kyungsoo reminded Chanyeol.

“-but you’re a priest. I don’t want to put you in danger too. I think I’ll be able to travel faster by myself too,” Chanyeol attested.

“I may be a priest but I was also trained by the temple to fight. Why do you think we travel around with those ringed staffs? We move around a lot and we have to learn to protect ourselves because it’s not safe out there,” Kyungsoo proclaimed, glancing at his ringed staff propped against a wall at the corner of the hut, asserting his capabilities to somehow intimidate Chanyeol into giving up his real identity.

“Oh, your god lets you do that,” Chanyeol muttered, looking at the dancing fire on the hearth, “Do you worship Hachiman, the god of war?”

“No. I’m with the sun goddess, Amaterasu’s sect actually,” Kyungsoo replied, poking at the fire with a stick to turn over the firewood.

“Well then, I suppose that you could take me halfway back home,” Chanyeol accepted, Kyungsoo’s offer.

“We’ll leave once your leg is better and when you’re ready then,” Kyungsoo’s lips formed a small smile, “Your leg isn’t injured too badly so it’ll probably be a few days at most. Get some rest until then.”

“I will,” Chanyeol muttered softly in response, curling his legs up to his chest as he continued to stare at the orange flames in the hearth.

That night, it began to rain heavily with accompanying strong winds and loud clapping thunder. Kyungsoo woke up several times in the night because of the thunder. When he did, he would check the windows and doors, making sure it was shut tight and had not been blown open the wind.

The fire had died down several hours ago and in the sunken hearth, only the glowing residue embers of the firewood were left.

It was still warm though and radiated heat so Kyungsoo had slept close to it, while Chanyeol was sleeping on another mat closer to the wall and facing away from him instead. Kyungsoo imagined that Chanyeol would have been warm nonetheless because of his clothes.

Kyungsoo looked over his shoulder at a sleeping Chanyeol and saw nothing off about it. Maybe his suspicions were wrong and Chanyeol was really human, albeit a rather odd and strange one.

Kyungsoo went back to sleep and woke up a few hours later, while it was still dark outside although the rain had stopped since then.

It was not yet close to sunrise so Kyungsoo didn’t have to wake up yet to perform the daily morning prayers. Kyungsoo rolled over on the sleeping mat, finding a new position to go back to sleep by facing the wall instead of the hearth.

What Kyungsoo saw instead was Chanyeol, wide awake and sitting beside the open window with the full moon now visible in the sky when the clouds had cleared up after the rain.

There was a moist and dewy sensation to the air blowing through the window from after the rain. The moon was round and bright in the sky, high above the trees outside.

Chanyeol was just sitting there, gazing up at the moon with his back turned to Kyungsoo.

But that wasn’t what caught Kyungsoo by surprise. Chanyeol’s shadow reflected on the floor from the moonlight was not that of a man but that of a fox.

Kyungsoo’s eyes grew wide and he quickly rolled over again to face away from Chanyeol and back towards the hearth. Kyungsoo remembered that by looking at the person’s reflection or their shadow, one could tell whether they were a real human or fox in disguise.

Chanyeol was clearly and very evidently a mystical fox with the ability to change into a human.


	2. Chapter 2

After discovering Chanyeol was indeed a shapeshifting fox in the form of a human, Kyungsoo kept the finding to himself and did not bring it up to confront Chanyeol about it.

Kyungsoo didn’t act any different or treated Chanyeol differently either, so Chanyeol would not suspect Kyungsoo about knowing his secret.

Kyungsoo was still trying to keep it safe because there was no way in telling what kind of mythical fox Chanyeol actually was.

Chanyeol could have been a sly, malicious kitsune that deceived and tricked humans. If it was that case, Kyungsoo did not want to do anything that would invoke Chanyeol’s spite and anger because it would be a hassle to deal with.

At the same time, Chanyeol could also be one of the benevolent foxes that were nothing but loyal messengers of the harvest and fertility goddess, Inari, who was widely worshipped throughout the country. Kyungsoo wouldn’t want to risk being on the bad side of Inari’s messenger either, because it could invoke the goddess’ anger which would affect the quality of that year’s harvest.

Besides that, Chanyeol hadn’t really done anything that would endanger Kyungsoo, and it was in fact, Kyungsoo himself who had injured Chanyeol and put the latter in such a predicament.

The following morning after the night Kyungsoo discovered Chanyeol’s real identity, Kyungsoo got up at sunrise to perform his morning prayer service for Amaterasu at the shrine beside the hut.

After he was done with the prayer, Kyungsoo undressed from his prayer robes and changed into his regular clothes when he returned to the hut where Chanyeol was sitting on the floor beside on the entrance with his white kimono pulled up to his knees.

“I’m going to leave tomorrow. I need to get back home,” Chanyeol announced the moment Kyungsoo was back inside the hut.

“Which village or town do you come from?” Kyungsoo asked, feigning ignorance despite knowing that Chanyeol was not from any village or town at all.

“It’s near the mountain from here,” Chanyeol answered, looking up at Kyungsoo from the floor he was seated on.

“-but your leg isn’t that fully healed yet. You can’t walk through the forest like that yet and it's going to be a two days trip at least,” Kyungsoo eyed Chanyeol’s exposed bandaged leg, “Let me take you back since it's my fault that you’re like this in the first place.”

“No, I can do it by myself. I did get this far all on my own so I’ll be able to take myself home too,” Chanyeol debated.

“I don’t think your leg will be good enough to walk that far by tomorrow, Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo reasoned, sitting cross-legged on the floor hut, facing Chanyeol, “You seem in a rush to get back. Is there something wrong?”

Chanyeol’s breath hitched and he avoided Kyungsoo’s gaze before replying, “I’m afraid that I’ve been away from home too long. I’m not supposed to be gone for this long so I just want to get home as soon as I can.”

“Well, you were wandering this far in the forest dressed like that and all unequipped. You should have known what you were getting into coming all the way here,” Kyungsoo pointed out, giving out hints but not directly exposing that he knew

“I know,” Chanyeol affirmed, sounding a bit annoyed, “-but I didn’t expect to get shot in the leg by an arrow either. I would have been fine and be home right now if it wasn’t for that.”

“Fine,” Kyungsoo sighed, folding his arms over his chest, “I admit that it was my mistake. So, at least please let me take you back home even if it’s just half of the way there.”

“Half of the way then,” Chanyeol agreed, “-but no further than that and this only as an apology for shooting me in the leg with an arrow. But we must leave tomorrow at the latest. Are you prepared to leave by tomorrow? Or else, I’ll just go ahead alone.”

“It should be enough time for me but I cannot say the same for your leg,” Kyungsoo explained.

“It’ll be fine tomorrow,” Chanyeol asserted, “-just make the preparations you need. I can’t waste any more time. It is important that I get home as soon as possible.”

“Very well then, we’ll leave tomorrow after sunrise,” Kyungsoo agreed, pretending to be skeptical about Chanyeol but knowing that a mythical fox would be able to heal their injuries very fast.

Sure enough, Kyungsoo pretended to be surprised the next morning when Chanyeol showed his leg to Kyungsoo, telling the priest that it was fully and nicely healed up, ready to make the journey back to wherever he said his home was.

Kyungsoo spewed something about a miracle or a god’s blessing to Chanyeol, although he knew that wasn’t probably the case. Chanyeol was also seemingly awkward about that whole conversation too.

Kyungsoo knew that it was physically impossible for a human to heal such a wound overnight, and how such an injury would surely leave a scar on it. Because Chanyeol’s leg looked as if it was never even injured or hit by an arrow in the first place.

Kyungsoo didn’t need more evidence to know that Chanyeol was not human but a shapeshifting fox. He just didn’t know which kind of fox he was, and that was what he wanted to know.

Kyungsoo buried some of his valuable items such as pots, pans, and knives at the back of the hut. He dug a hole in the earth and buried the equipment in it before covering it up with some leaves and grass.

This was to deter from his hut being ransacked and robbed by bandits while he had to travel to send Chanyeol home back at the mountain. Kyungsoo was confident that the bandits would not stoop to low to rob a shrine, so he let it be and lit a few candles in it before he left.

Kyungsoo locked up the hut and made sure the windows were also shut in place in case of heavy winds and rain.

Only after then, he left with Chanyeol on a journey that would take them at least two days to the mountain where Chanyeol said his home was.

Kyungsoo knew that were no such things as a village or a human settlement near the mountain Chanyeol wanted to go to. Kyungsoo did not bring that up though and simply led Chanyeol lead him the way there.

Before they had left the hut, Kyungsoo offered to lend Chanyeol some of his clothes that would be more suited to wear while they were traveling through the forests and towards the mountains.

Chanyeol declined it though and continued to wear his white kimono which was previously dirtied but now looked brand new and spotless for some reason Kyungsoo knew to be inhuman. Despite the heat, Chanyeol still kept wearing his distinguishable red scarf for some reason.

Kyungsoo brought along his bow and arrow alongside some things he might need in a travel sack he slung over his shoulders.

As a priest, Kyungsoo had to travel in his black priest robes and carry around his ringed staff. The staff was not only a walking stick but also a weapon to defend himself while he was traveling. Whenever Kyungsoo moved, the rings on the staff would tinkle against each other and make a ringing sound.

Because priests often had to travel alone passing through dangerous places, they were taught to defend themselves and the ringed staff evolved from not only being a signal to tell that a roaming priest in need of alms was in the area, but also to protect themselves from harm.

The pair traveled through the forests in the middle of summer, when the humidity was at its peak, the forest was shrilling with the sounds of the cicadas and the bugs were at their most active.

Kyungsoo wore a straw hat to keep out the negligible sunlight that passed through the canopy provided by the trees overhead them. There were some insects or bugs that often flew past in front of him and Kyungsoo had to swing his staff around to scare them off.

Chanyeol, on the other hand, was the least bit if even bothered by it. He did not sweat in the heat or in the humidity despite how elaborately he was dressed in an exquisite kimono and red scarf. The bugs didn’t approach him either and Kyungsoo didn’t even need to see that to know Chanyeol was definitely not human, unlike what he appeared to be.

Chanyeol also seemed to be several paces ahead of Kyungsoo constantly despite everything.

By the afternoon on the same day they left, they had already arrived at the pass alongside a rocky hill as a shortcut to make their way to the mountain Chanyeol said his home was.

However, they were dismayed to find out that a landslide had occurred because of the storm from two nights ago, leaving the shortcut to the mountains impossible to travel on.

“No! How do I get home now?” Chanyeol gasped, seeing their path blocked by heaps of earth and boulders of rock. There was no option to walk around it either because it was a path at the side of a hill, and they risked a high drop down below if they attempted such a thing. Even Chanyeol doubted he’d be alright to attempt such a feat.

Kyungsoo tipped the brim of his hat slightly upwards, inspecting the blockage and also determining that there no way for them to get around it. They could actually try to remove the debris but it would have taken them days if not weeks, and it was just the both of them too without the right equipment to do so. 

“We have to take the long way through the forest then,” Kyungsoo informed Chanyeol.

“But I need to get back home as soon as I can,” Chanyeol exasperatedly mentioned.

“I understand that but there is no way around this,” Kyungsoo tried to persuade Chanyeol; “It’ll be weeks if not months before someone comes to clear this up. We can’t do it too so you can either wait until then or we can take the route through the forests which will just take another day or two more.”

Chanyeol sighed, looking up to the bright sky and then back at Kyungsoo behind him. Chanyeol was wearing a very worried and distraught expression on his face, one that Kyungsoo didn’t expect to see on Chanyeol.

Even if Chanyeol turned out to be a malicious kitsune at this point, Kyungsoo would still be also worried on Chanyeol’s behalf just from seeing how he looked like.

It was as if there was something that Chanyeol was very afraid of. And Kyungsoo wasn’t really intent on knowing what a mystical creature like Chanyeol would be fearful of. It could have been another stronger mythical creature or even worse, a god.

They were forced to return to the forests and take the long way to the mountains instead of passing by alongside the hillside because of the landslide.

Apart from the worried expression Chanyeol still wore on his face, Kyungsoo also began to notice how fast Chanyeol seemed to deteriorate now.

Chanyeol began to sweat, began to pant and began to breathe heavier while they were trekking through the forest when this had not occurred before.

Kyungsoo just thought that Chanyeol had maybe tired out after expending his inhuman stamina and capabilities which included healing injuries overnight and keeping his ever-white kimono so clean and pristine. But Kyungsoo did not suspect that something else was up with Chanyeol at the time.

Sometime in the mid-afternoon, while they hadn’t been traveling long on the detour they were forced to take, they arrived at a flowing stream in the middle of the forest.

Kyungsoo suggested stopping there to rest and Chanyeol agreed, despite his initial insistence of traveling as fast as they could without taking unnecessary stops because he wanted to be home as soon as possible.

Chanyeol sat under the shade of a tall tree with his back to the trunk, near the edge of the stream.

Kyungsoo took off his shoes and sandals before rolling up his sleeves to his elbows and pulling his priest robes up to his knees. Kyungsoo then entered the water with his ringed staff, waiting for a fish to swim past him.

Kyungsoo planned to catch the fish for dinner, by stabbing through it with the other end of his staff when he saw one appear.

The stream was cooling and even though Kyungsoo failed to catch the first few fish that swam by, standing in it and washing his face with the cool water was enough to relieve him of the summer heat and humidity.

Kyungsoo decided to stop for a while before resuming at his attempt to catch a fish that could be cooked for dinner. Kyungsoo sat on the rocks at the edge of the stream, dipping his feet into the cool, clear running water below him.

While relaxing at the bank of the stream, Kyungsoo glanced over his shoulder to look at Chanyeol behind him, who was looking in a direction with a blank stare as he seemed to be intently thinking about something. Chanyeol didn’t look rather comfortable from the sight of it.

“Are you hot? Do you want to come and sit here? It’s cold and nice. You could even take a bath in here,” Kyungsoo suggested to Chanyeol.

“No thank you. I’m alright,” Chanyeol assured but seemed to contradict what he was saying because shortly later, he was wiping beads of sweat from the side of his face. “I don’t like getting wet. I don’t like the hassle of getting dry,” Chanyeol claimed, grimacing at the suggestion of it.

“I do have a spare change of clothes you can use,” Kyungsoo offered, looking at the travel sack he had put aside down on the grass.

“I said I’m fine,” Chanyeol repeated, a bit louder this time.

“Alright then,” Kyungsoo accepted, getting back to his feet in the stream and picking up his ringed staff to attempt to catch a fish again.

Kyungsoo’s further attempts at catching the fish merely remained as attempts because he hadn’t managed to catch a single fish despite the plenty that swam past him.

There was still some dried fox meat leftover from his previous hunt, but Kyungsoo wasn’t going to provoke Chanyeol and feed fox meat to a fox.

Although Kyungsoo didn’t say why he was doing this, it was definitely for Chanyeol.

Kyungsoo still made a connection and wanted to believe that Chanyeol was most likely the same person who had saved him from drowning many winters ago. Kyungsoo believed he still owed this person his life or at least his gratitude, even if they turned out to be a malevolent kitsune.

At this point, Kyungsoo could care less about what kind of being Chanyeol turned out to be. He just wanted to know if Chanyeol was this same person who had rescued him from that icy pond.

After further repeatedly failing at trying to catch a fish, Chanyeol who was watching this, felt like he had seen enough and quickly got up to his own feet too.

Instead of going into the stream, he began to walk off down alongside the bank of the stream, away from their resting spot under the tall shady tree.

“Where are you going?” Kyungsoo asked, seeing Chanyeol slowly walking away, down the length of the upstream flow.

“I’m going to catch a fish, I can’t stand seeing you do so poorly at it,” Chanyeol replied, stopping in his tracks and turning to look at Kyungsoo briefly. 

“I know, I’m not very good at this. I’m better with a bow and arrow but with the noise, we’re making, I doubt any animal within the vicinity would still be here,” Kyungsoo chuckled, still standing knee-deep in the flowing stream.

“I won’t take long and please don’t follow me,” Chanyeol sighed, a bit visibly annoyed and slightly distraught too.

“You don’t need my help?” Kyungsoo questioned, knowing the answer full well but still wanting to test Chanyeol’s reaction.

“I told you I can hunt fine by my own,” Chanyeol exclaimed, “Just stay here and start a fire or something. Don’t bother trying to catch any more fish while I’m doing it too. There won’t be any down here when I have caught them upstream.”

“Do you want to use my staff then?” Kyungsoo wadded against the upstream flow, catching up with Chanyeol on the bank and handing him the ringed staff which tinkled when it was moved.

“No thank you,” Chanyeol put a hand to stop Kyungsoo from trying to hand him the staff, before following the bank of the stream against the downstream flow.

Kyungsoo shrugged and after Chanyeol was out of sight, he left the stream to start a fire and set up two mats on the grass for them to rest on. At some point, Kyungsoo began to think that Chanyeol had ditched him there, and chose to continue traveling alone.

Thinking that it could be the case, Kyungsoo prepared to cook the dried fox meat he had brought with him. If Chanyeol really did come back with some fish, they could have that and if he didn’t, Kyungsoo would have something to eat at least.

Kyungsoo planned to wait out until dark. If Chanyeol didn’t return by then, he’d just make camp there for the night and return back to his hut and the forest shrine the next morning. And that would mark the end of his encounter with a mystical shapeshifting fox.

Just as the smell and the smoke from the fox meat which had been skewered onto a twig were beginning to waft in the forest, roasted over the burning fire Kyungsoo had set up without much difficulty, Chanyeol was seen approaching from upstream.

Kyungsoo couldn’t have missed that white kimono and the red scarf even from afar, because of how striking it looked against the backdrop and the natural colors of the forest.

Kyungsoo lifted his head up when he saw Chanyeol walking towards him. Kyungsoo was sitting not far from the crackling fire, leaning against the trunk of the tree.

Chanyeol tossed at least four fishes from his hands onto the grass in front of Kyungsoo, who looked at the four fish in front of him and then back up at Chanyeol.

“There’s our dinner. I told you I’d get it,” Chanyeol announced, slumping his back on the trunk of the tree before plopping onto the grass next to Kyungsoo. Chanyeol rested his head back against the tree and exhaled, looking a bit worn out as he gazed up at the dimming sky.

“Thank you,” Kyungsoo expressed, picking the fishes and then standing up, wanting to return to the stream to wash the catch and remove their stomachs and gills to prepare it for consumption.

While still sitting on the grass, Chanyeol reached forward, stretching his arm out to pull one fish away from Kyungsoo’s grasp.

“This is mine. You can do whatever you want with the rest,” Chanyeol told, avoiding the sight of the fox meat roasting over the fire.

“I can wash it for you first if you want,” Kyungsoo recommended, “It’ll taste better without the body organs still inside it. It’s rather bitter, you know.”

“I like my food raw,” Chanyeol stated, still holding the fish in one hand near his face level.

“Very well then, if that’s what you prefer,” Kyungsoo smiled it off, returning to the stream and learning that Chanyeol had used his fox form to catch the fish because of the teeth marks he found on it. The marks weren’t that of a human’s but that of a meat-eating animal.

As it was getting late and their journey had been delayed and had to be rerouted because of the landslide, they decided to make camp near the stream before continuing further tomorrow.

Chanyeol had insisted they traveled a bit more but Kyungsoo had to argue that setting up camp by the stream for the night was the best for them. Chanyeol seemed reluctant at first but he complied in the end, and Kyungsoo had guessed that Chanyeol would just take off and leave in the night.

Kyungsoo saw that this wasn’t the case though.

Chanyeol hardly slept at night and Kyungsoo knew this because he often woke up in the middle of the night, to see Chanyeol sitting near the fire watching over it. Since moving into the forests to guard the shrine, Kyungsoo rarely slept straight through the night without waking up at least once.

Chanyeol kept the fire burning throughout the night, occasionally going into the dark forests to gather firewood to keep it burning.

A fox was able to see in the dark so Kyungsoo assumed it was no problem for Chanyeol to be about in the dark. Therefore, there was really no reason why Kyungsoo thought Chanyeol would bother to keep the fire burning through the night, except for Kyungsoo’s own benefit.

That seemed like a rather kind thing for a kitsune thing to do, and something like what a messenger of a benevolent goddess would do instead.

While the fire burned and its orange flamed danced in the dark of the cloudy, moonless night, Kyungsoo also saw that Chanyeol’s shadow was that of a fox just like the last time. Kyungsoo was not mistaken and it led him to further believe that Chanyeol was this same man from the winter many years ago.

Again, Chanyeol had not noticed Kyungsoo was awake, and Kyungsoo closed his eyes to go back to sleep feeling very comfortable and at ease despite being in the presence of someone still so alluring yet so mysterious.

The next morning right after sunrise, Kyungsoo performed a small prayer service in the direction of the rising sun. Chanyeol waited for him until he was done and then, they continued traveling to the mountain where Chanyeol said to be his home.

They spent another night in the forest where they made camp not far from the forest path frequently taken by travelers passing through the area.

This time, Kyungsoo woke up in the middle of the night to find Chanyeol asleep and the fire still burning but slowly dying out now that it was unguarded.

Kyungsoo got up to throw some more firewood to keep the fire burning when he smiled to himself, seeing that Chanyeol was clutching a dead rat in his hand while asleep. 

Chanyeol was sleeping soundly and did not move or stir once in his sleep, Kyungsoo observed. With the dead rat in his hand, Chanyeol was curled up in his sleep like a fox would do while asleep.

Kyungsoo actually thought it was adorable and noted how youthful Chanyeol looked like, although he could have been as old as the gods themselves.

Kyungsoo’s smiling expression quickly turned into that of a surprise when he returned back to his sleeping mat, only to find the head of a severed snake not far from where his head was resting while he had been sleeping.

The body of the lifeless snake was lying nearby on the ground, separated from its head with claw and teeth marks of that of a fox.

Kyungsoo didn’t ask Chanyeol about it the next morning but he just assumed two things; either Chanyeol had killed the snake for trying to catch the rat he wanted to eat or Chanyeol had been protecting Kyungsoo while he was asleep.

Kyungsoo was more lenient on believing the former even though the latter sounded a bit plausible too. For if Chanyeol were a kitsune, Kyungsoo thought that he would have surely been tricked and cheated of something by now.

Halfway through their journey on their third day in the forests, they could already see the mountain range in the far distance. They should arrive at the foot of the mountains before it got dark at the pace they were going, which was a bit faster than they initially thought.

Chanyeol almost skipped in joy when they were able to see the mountain range far ahead of them. He looked a lot less worried but was visibly more hasty and anxious now that they were closer to it than the start of their journey.

In the afternoon, they stopped at a small clearing between the trees to take a short break before continuing their journey to the mountains. While it would be the end of Chanyeol’s journey, Kyungsoo still had to travel down the same way they had come from to make it back to the forest shrine.

Kyungsoo was honestly anticipating the end of his tenure as the priest of the forest shrine now, which would only end on the last day of summer. Kyungsoo was only allowed to return to the main temple complex in Kyoto after that.

The main purpose of sending a priest in-training to live in the middle of the forest was to strengthen their faith and devotion to the gods whom they worshipped.

Now that he was almost done with it, Kyungsoo still honestly saw no change in his supposed faith or devotion to the goddess Amaterasu.

The clearing in the forest they chose to rest at had some wild berry bushes growing beside them. Seeing that it was the common berry bushes, just simply growing wildly in the forest, Kyungsoo knew it was safe to eat and plucked a few to eat.

Chanyeol joined him, standing in front of the bushes, plucking the berries straight from the branches and then popping it into his mouth to chew and eat.

Kyungsoo also wrapped a few of the berries in a cloth for him to eat, in case he didn’t manage to find anything else to eat on the several days trip back to the forest shrine.

“Thank you for taking me this far. You didn’t have to do it for me actually, because now you have to make the journey back by yourself now,” Chanyeol expressed, standing not far from Kyungsoo in front of the berry bush.

“You can thank me when we get there, which we aren’t yet. Besides, I still need to make it up to you for injuring you. It doesn’t feel right by me to just let you go off alone,” Kyungsoo returned, still plucking berries from the bush to take along with him.

“I think I can get back on my own now. You don’t have to come with me anymore. It’ll save you another half a day of a trip. You can get back to the shrine faster this way,” Chanyeol explained.

“I’m already here, I might as well take you the rest of the way,” Kyungsoo insisted, putting a berry into his mouth and then chewing it.

“No,” Chanyeol firmly maintained, “You should go back now. It is for the best.”

“What are you so worried about?” Kyungsoo joked, “Are your parents going to scold you for being gone so long?”

“It’s something like that,” Chanyeol responded, a bit nervous at the sudden statement.

“So,” Kyungsoo confronted Chanyeol, still trying to drop hints and there without revealing what he actually knew, “What kind of place do you live in at the mountains? I thought nobody lives around here.”

“-a normal place…like uh, where everyone like you lives in too,” Chanyeol attempted to say, flustered and appearing to be worried about something.

“Like the one I live in, eh?” Kyungsoo repeated and then recalling, “My father is the retainer of our domain so I got to live in a big house with some servants actually. Do you live like that too?”

“Somewhat,” Chanyeol avoided eye-contact with Kyungsoo, pretending to be engrossed at the berry bush in front of him instead.

“Now, that’s interesting,” Kyungsoo noted, “I didn’t know a place like that existed this deep in the forests.”

Chanyeol only nodded but did not say anything further. He didn’t try to continue the conservation or the topic either.

Kyungsoo could tell Chanyeol was getting uncomfortable at the subject so he decided to let it go too, not wanting to seemingly taunt Chanyeol either since he knew that wherever the latter came from, it was definitely not from this world for sure.

Despite Chanyeol’s insistence that Kyungsoo leave him there and begin his journey back to the forest shrine, Kyungsoo continued to refuse and follow Chanyeol all the way to the foot of the mountain.

Kyungsoo didn’t want to part with Chanyeol so soon, not when he hadn’t even discovered what Chanyeol really was and if he was related to his past.

It should have been simple to just straight up ask the question that had been plaguing Kyungsoo for the past five or so days he had spent with Chanyeol, and even for over a decade since that winter day.

But Kyungsoo was still afraid of invoking the wrath of an evil kitsune if he said even one wrong word, and that was if Chanyeol was confirmed to be one.

As they approached the foot of the mountain trail, Kyungsoo began debating to himself if he should ask Chanyeol the big question now, before they parted and Kyungsoo would probably never get to see Chanyeol ever again.

Kyungsoo reasoned that because of his position as a priest, he should know to ward off Chanyeol if the latter turned out to be evil with bad intentions. And if Chanyeol wasn’t, that was a good thing then.

Either way, Kyungsoo thought that he would be alright.

Confident, Kyungsoo decided to question Chanyeol about it, when they were very close to a wooden marker to tell them they were approaching the foot of the mountain trail.

Chanyeol was walking several steps in front of Kyungsoo as usual when he abruptly stopped in his track and put an arm behind to stop the rings on Kyungsoo’s staff from tinkling as he moved.

“Shh,” Chanyeol hushed, looking alert and perked at the presence of something around them.

Kyungsoo went still, also stopping in his tracks and wary about the situation. “What’s wrong?” Kyungsoo whispered.

“I can hear someone around this area. They’re humans, about four to five of them,” Chanyeol looked side to side and around them, his eyes darting everywhere from the trees to the ground beneath their feet.

Kyungsoo looked around from where he stood but he wasn’t able to make out the presence of other people among the growth on the forest floor and the trees close to each other. Chanyeol claimed to have heard them but Kyungsoo wasn’t able to.

“They could be travelers too like us,” Kyungsoo continued to whisper back to Chanyeol.

“No, I sense the presence of an evil intention,” Chanyeol hissed, taking a step backward.

Just then, while Kyungsoo was trying to adjust the brim of his straw hat to look better, the said four men jumped out of the bushes in front of Chanyeol, armed with and brandishing weapons such as short blades and daggers.

They all appeared to be male, were dressed ruggedly and covered their faces with clothes. They were no doubt the infamous mountain bandits that infested this area to rob wealthy travelers and pilgrims.

Alarmed at their sudden presence, Kyungsoo pulled Chanyeol by the collar to push the latter back behind him.

“Get back,” Kyungsoo warned Chanyeol, making sure he was shielding Chanyeol’s body with his own.

Kyungsoo swung his ringed staff to block them from swinging their sharp weapons at him and at Chanyeol. Kyungsoo’s staff was made of bronze and although it wasn’t sharp like their weapons, it was sturdy enough to defend himself like it was meant to be.

Using both ends of the staff to his advantage, Kyungsoo slammed the rings into the face of one bandit to temporarily blind him, while using the other end to bluntly stab into the stomach of another bandit.

Kyungsoo had half the mind to grab his hunting bow and arrow in the bag he was carrying, but then realized it wasn’t a really good weapon in such close quarters.

“Go, run,” Kyungsoo instructed Chanyeol, when he found himself in a pinch, unable to defend both himself and Chanyeol against two times their number.

Kyungsoo saw one of the bandits swinging a curved sword towards him and he wasn’t able to parry that attack in time, because his staff had been grabbed by one of the bandits attempting to wrestle it away from him.

Kyungsoo didn’t have time to avoid it and anticipated the blow while he was still trying to pull his staff back when he witnessed a large white fox that appeared out of nowhere and jumped onto the bandit with the curved sword.

The white fox, wearing a striking red bib, pushed the bandit to the ground before ripping off his face and neck in one bite, instantly killing the said bandit.

Seeing this, the bandits diverted their attention from Kyungsoo and instead to this fox that was at least the size of a large dog.

The fox’s move was agile and swift as it dodged the bandits attack, jumping and darting around as it bit their limbs and skin off with its sharp teeth.

Kyungsoo was too stunned and looked around to find Chanyeol at first, only to not see him there anywhere and then realizing that Chanyeol was actually this fox.

While Kyungsoo fought off another bandit, who had managed to pin Chanyeol’s fox form down to the ground, Chanyeol managed to free himself and assist Kyungsoo with this particular bandit by climbing onto their back and then ripping their necks out.

Chanyeol’s white fur coat and Kyungsoo’s priest's robes, and even the bark of the nearby tree were sprayed with the blood as flesh hung from Chanyeol’s jaw and Kyungsoo had to witness a man’s throat literally crumble and crush open by the weight of his head.

The fourth and last bandit had hidden in a bush upon seeing his comrades being slaughtered by a priest and an abnormally large white fox that had appeared out of thin air.

Upon seeing that he was the last one there alive, with the mangled bodies of his former partners lying in parts over the forest floor, this last bandit decided to ambush Kyungsoo from behind.

Chanyeol sensed this ambush as it came and leaped high, jumping over Kyungsoo’s shoulder to block the attack and stop the bandit from injuring Kyungsoo.

Although Chanyeol managed to kill this last bandit by ripping off his face, he was also brought down by a simultaneous stab in his stomach when this bandit managed to drive his dagger into Chanyeol’s gut at the same moment Chanyeol bit his face off.

In a mere few seconds, this last bandit was lying on the forest floor with the rest of his former teammates, with the lower half of his face gone and his eyeballs hanging from the sockets.

Chanyeol was also on the ground, collapsed with his white fur stained by the blood, breathing heavily and limp with a large gushing wound on his stomach.

“Chanyeol!” Kyungsoo rushed to Chanyeol, kneeling to the ground in front of Chanyeol, extremely worried and unsure at what to do. The injury was bad and Kyungsoo was beginning to get sick from how much blood there was everywhere.

In an instant, Chanyeol changed from his fox form into his human form, in front of Kyungsoo’s eyes for the first time.

In his human form, Chanyeol’s white kimono was also red with blood and he was clutching a hand over his bleeding stomach, pressing hard on the wound as he gritted his teeth and strained through the pain.

That indeed confirm Kyungsoo’s theory that Chanyeol was definitely not human and a shapeshifting fox instead, but it was the least of his concerns now.

“Please tell me how I can help you,” Kyungsoo pleaded, distraught and broken because he felt helpless in this predicament.

Chanyeol shook his head, face going pale, “No, it’s too far. Only Inari can help me but we’ll never make it to the shrine on the mountain anytime soon. I’ve been gone too long and my powers are dwindling. I won’t last long so please just go home.”

“I can’t leave you like this,” Kyungsoo insisted, attempting to carry Chanyeol, “I’ll bring you up the mountain to Inari then.”

“No,” Chanyeol almost yelled but having to stop himself because it would worsen the pain and injury, “Just go. Don’t waste your life like this. I know you are that same boy I saved that winter. I am happy that you grew up well and healthy. So please, just go,” Chanyeol begged, pained to even try to speak.

“Then why would you tell me that only now?” Kyungsoo panicked, on the verge of bursting into tears as he tried to apply pressure on Chanyeol’s wound, even it meant staining his own hands with blood, “Don’t you realize that you’re only giving me more reasons to save you? I owe you my life.”

“Please, leave,” Chanyeol continued to plead, feeling even weaker and limp.

“No,” Kyungsoo firmly said, holding Chanyeol’s chin to face him with his bloodied hand, putting his own face close to Chanyeol, “Whether you’re a messenger of Inari or not, you’re still a shapeshifting fox like a kitsune. You share the same nature, so that means you can take a human’s life force to help replenish your powers and heal your injuries. You just need my bodily fluids.”

“Don’t,” Chanyeol eyes almost rolled to the back of his head as he tried to hold on to the last bit of his consciousness, stuttering out, “-you d-dare do it.”

Kyungsoo completely ignored Chanyeol and joined their lips together, holding Chanyeol’s jaw open with his hands in an open mouth kiss.

Kyungsoo slipped his tongue into Chanyeol’s mouth, making sure his saliva mixed with Chanyeol’s and ensuring that Chanyeol would swallow it down when he pulled away to close Chanyeol’s mouth shut. This was so Chanyeol wouldn’t spit it back out.

Chanyeol was too weak to fight back and resist Kyungsoo, forcing him to swallow down Kyungsoo’s saliva in his mouth.

He’d rather die now than continue to defy the gods and interfere with the cycle of life and death, because on that winter over a dozen years ago, Kyungsoo was supposed to drown and die in that pond.


	3. Chapter 3

Everything that happened after it all seemed too fast for Kyungsoo, or at least that was what it appeared to him.

After he had forced Chanyeol to swallow down his saliva, because of the belief that a human’s bodily fluid could be used to exchange energy into that of a mystical creature, Kyungsoo was the one finding himself feeling weak and dizzy before passing out on the forest floor not very far from the four dead bodies belonging to the bandits.

Before passing out, Kyungsoo last saw a very shocked and horrified face belonging to Chanyeol, who seemed well enough to be standing already and looking on so judgmentally yet concerned towards him.

It appeared that Chanyeol was indeed the messenger of the goddess Inari, so as someone in such a position, Kyungsoo assumed that he had done something really unholy to cause such a reaction from Chanyeol.

But other than saving Chanyeol, Kyungsoo didn’t really know what else he had done.

When Kyungsoo woke up again, it was dark and nighttime. There was a fire burning not far from where he was and Kyungsoo found himself lying on the sleeping mat he had brought along for his journey.

All of his belongings and his ringed staff were not far from where he had been sleeping, all of the items arranged and undisturbed.

Kyungsoo quickly got up, feeling his legs as rather weak when he stood up, with a slight headache lingering in his head.

He wasn’t sleepy anymore but he was certainly not energized and ready to trek through the forest either, not like he was going to do so in the pitch black of the night deep in the middle of nowhere.

Kyungsoo looked around for Chanyeol at their campsite or any traces that might notify him of the latter’s presence. Kyungsoo parted through the bushes near the fire and looked behind the trees, hoping to see either a white fox or maybe even Chanyeol in his human form.

Kyungsoo wanted to know if he was seeing right and whether the image of Chanyeol being alright before he passed out, was indeed real and not a mere hallucination or trick of the mind.

Chanyeol certainly had to be around here or not far from here if he had left, Kyungsoo believed. Because who else was there to light the fire, pull Kyungsoo up onto the sleeping mat and arrange his things nearby in a neat pile if it wasn’t Chanyeol?

After not finding Chanyeol anywhere nearby, Kyungsoo grabbed his ringed staff and attempted to leave the campsite to look for Chanyeol.

Kyungsoo just needed to know that Chanyeol was alright, and if he was, Kyungsoo still had a lot of questions he needed answers from Chanyeol too.

Just after Kyungsoo had grabbed his ringed staff and was about to leave to look even further than that, he heard the sounds of rustling coming behind from him near the long grass and bushes. It was too dark for him to see what it was yet but Kyungsoo was hoping very much that it was Chanyeol.

Kyungsoo looked over his shoulder and turned around completely when he came in view of a white fox with a red bib, walking and appearing through the bushes as it dropped something from its mouth onto the ground in front of the fire just across from where Kyungsoo was standing.

It was a bird of some sort that was dropped from the fox’s mouth and Kyungsoo smiled, knowing it was Chanyeol.

Chanyeol proved it was him by then changing into his human form, now standing in front of Kyungsoo in his long white kimono which was a stark contrast to the dark of the night. This time, Chanyeol didn’t seem too reserved about hiding the truth behind his identity, evident by the way he still had his long and flowing white fox tail still visible from the bottom hem of his kimono.

“You’re alive,” Kyungsoo exclaimed.

“-and I have your dinner too,” Chanyeol continued.

Kyungsoo chuckled out of relief, sitting back down on the grassy ground as he pressed a hand to his forehead and sighed, “Well, I can’t eat it like that, you know.”

“I’ll take the feathers out for you then,” Chanyeol shrugged, squatting on the ground as he used his human hands to pluck out the feathers from the corpse of the bird.

Kyungsoo smiled, easing up a little as he observed Chanyeol’s antics of attempting to prepare the bird to be cooked over the fire.

“Are you still injured?” Kyungsoo asked out of concern, remembering that Chanyeol had been very injured the previous time.

“I’m alright now,” Chanyeol replied, spitting out a feather from his mouth after giving up on using his human hands to de-feather the bird. Chanyeol would have just eaten it straight up with feathers and all but he knew that humans like Kyungsoo had to do this and cook it over a fire or else they would fall ill.

“Oh,” Kyungsoo gaped, looking away and asking again after a brief pause, “Did I help?”

In the dark of the forest with only the burning firewood as the source of illumination, Chanyeol looked up from the ground and towards Kyungsoo sitting across the fire.

Under the glow of the orange fire, Chanyeol’s striking gold eyes appeared even more “fox-like”.

“I suppose you can say so,” Chanyeol answered, biting off the head of the dead bird, knowing that humans also tend to leave the heads behind and not eat them.

“I’ve heard tales about kitsune like you before,” Kyungsoo added, going through his belongings that Chanyeol had put aside near the campsite.

“What did you hear?” Chanyeol asked, looking up from the ground towards Kyungsoo who had now moved and was standing beside him.

“That they can be rather mischievous and lecherous,” Kyungsoo replied, smiling as he had retrieved a handkerchief to wipe off the blood from the dead bird on the corner of Chanyeol’s lips.

Chanyeol’s eyes followed Kyungsoo’s hand that wiped his face before it was retracted and Chanyeol asked once more, “So, you’re scared of me now?”

“I wouldn’t say I am because I know you’re not those troublemaking kitsune like in the tales,” Kyungsoo smiled, sitting himself down on the grass beside Chanyeol, “After all, you saved my life many years ago and now I saved yours.”

Chanyeol turned his head away, muttering, “What do you want now?”

“Oh, I don’t want anything from you,” Kyungsoo was quick to say, “In fact; I just want to fulfil my promise of taking you back to where your home is. Didn’t you say that you had to return soon? We’ll leave tomorrow at the break of dawn.”

Chanyeol turned his head back slowly to look at Kyungsoo from the corner of his eye, “Don’t you even want who I really am or why I saved you so many years ago?”

“I do, actually,” Kyungsoo confessed, “-but after what happened, I don’t think it’s that important for me to know either. I think I can make my peace with that. So please, just tell me how I can get you home.”

“I-I’m not from here actually,” Chanyeol admitted, feeling slightly more trustful of Kyungsoo for not demanding something else out of him, especially after Kyungsoo had saved his life.

“I know you’re not but I don’t know where it is you’re really from either,” Kyungsoo mentioned.

“The reason I want to go to the mountain is because there’s a gate there that can actually to my real home. It’s in Takamagahara. You just have to walk me there but I can do it on my own actually,” Chanyeol revealed, still gripping the now fully de-feathered bird in his hand.

“Ah, I see. I’ve heard about Takamagahara. It’s another realm where beings like you reside in,” Kyungsoo nodded, “So I can just take you there and you can do your thing and get home.”

Chanyeol was actually expecting Kyungsoo to act shocked or even ask more questions, being impressed that he did not.

While Kyungsoo rambled on about making sure they were safe, in case any more of the bandits from the same gang they killed came to look for them, Chanyeol smiled and finding himself easing up more in Kyungsoo’s company.

Chanyeol handed over the now bald dead bird to Kyungsoo with a smile, “Here’s your dinner.”

“Thank you,” Kyungsoo smiled in return, accepting it in his hand, “I still have to probably wash this.”

Kyungsoo went back to sleep later that night after cooking the bird on the fire, which could have tasted better if he had some more ingredients to work with, he thought. Kyungsoo tried sharing half of it with Chanyeol but the latter refused, saying that the head of the bird was more than enough.

Kyungsoo wasn’t asleep for long before the dark skies turned bluer and the sun was already rising from beneath the horizon as daybreak approached.

Chanyeol did not sleep at all as he seemed to be more of the nocturnal kind, although he still didn’t seem to want to sleep during the day either. Then again, Chanyeol wasn’t human and Kyungsoo wasn’t expecting him to follow a certain sleeping routine away.

Together, they continued their journey down the forest and towards the mountain Chanyeol wished to head to. They were already so close to the foot of the mountain, from where onwards their path grew increasingly steep and rockier.

Therefore, even before noon, they were already on the mountain itself and trekking up a path that seemed to have been formed by the numerous people who have come up the same way.

What caught Kyungsoo’s attention were the small footprints of an animal on the mossy ground, from what was most likely a quadruped such as a fox. Although, he didn’t seem to sense the presence of such an animal the entire time they had been traveling that morning.

Kyungsoo thought that Chanyeol probably wasn’t the only one who utilized this same path to return to this place allegedly claimed to be Takamagahara.

“Is this the only way your kind uses to get home?” Kyungsoo asked, using his ringed staff for support while he walked up the inclined mountain path. Kyungsoo had to occasionally look to the ground when he moved so as to avoid tripping and often so, he would catch the sight of Chanyeol’s white fox tail peeking from the bottom of his kimono as Chanyeol was always walking ahead of him to lead the way.

“We have a few gates within Japan but they’re always in remote areas such as these,” Chanyeol explained, holding out his hand for Kyungsoo at a particularly steep part of the mountain trail where a large rock was in the way.

“I can see why,” Kyungsoo huffed, holding onto Chanyeol’s hand and climbing over the rock which came up to his knee level. Once he had come over the other side of the rock, Kyungsoo steadied himself up with his ringed staff and fixed the sash strapped on his chest, which was used to carry his supplies like a bag.

On the other side of the rock, where the surface was slightly easier to hike on, Kyungsoo noticed that Chanyeol was still holding onto his hand rather tightly and didn’t seem like he wanted to let go anytime soon.

Kyungsoo chuckled a bit, maybe because he was getting flustered at having someone hold his hand like that, almost like a mother holding onto her child so they wouldn’t get lost in a crowded place.

Honestly speaking, since Kyungsoo was assigned to guard the shrine in the forest, he had missed having interactions with another living being that was able to converse right back with him. Now that he had felt a warm hand holding his own, Kyungsoo also began to realize how much he missed the touch of someone else.

Sometimes, Kyungsoo would fantasize about a wandering traveler coming across their way at the shrine in the forest and he’d help house them for a night or two before they made their way, just to ease up on the loneliness while he was there.

Kyungsoo just never thought he’d run into someone like Chanyeol, who wasn’t even human, to begin with, and was apparently the same kitsune that had rescued him from the frozen lake so many years ago.

And then, here they were, so close to the end of their journey and Kyungsoo still didn’t feel like he had cracked the surface of discovering the mystery that Chanyeol was.

Kyungsoo still didn’t protest about Chanyeol holding onto his hand as they hiked up the path, even though he was embarrassed at himself for the way his heart raced and the way heat built up in his cheeks just from something so simple like that.

Maybe Chanyeol noticed and didn’t care or maybe he didn’t even notice the way Kyungsoo was feeling since he seemed to be in a rather jovial mood and was humming along as he led Kyungsoo down the mountain path.

In the other hand, Kyungsoo was now just carrying his staff and no longer using it as a cane to walk, since the path was less inclined and flatter the higher they got up the mountain.

Kyungsoo was just simply looking towards the ground, allowing Chanyeol to guide him through the way because Kyungsoo knew he’d just grow even more embarrassed to put his head up and look at Chanyeol.

But while Kyungsoo was looking towards the ground to avoid Chanyeol, he had the view of Chanyeol’s tail beginning to wag almost as if in excitement; something Kyungsoo didn’t think was possible for someone like him, not that he knew much about shapeshifting mythical foxes who resided in the realm of the gods.

Chanyeol also squealed in excitement at something and Kyungsoo finally looked up to see Chanyeol almost hopping in joy and pointing towards a tree.

“I knew coming out here in the summer was a good idea. It’s when the peaches are ripe!” Chanyeol gushed, letting go of Kyungsoo’s hand just to walk up to the tree and stand on his tiptoes to grab the peaches on the lowest branch that he could reach.

“Wild peach trees do grow pretty tall, don’t they?” Kyungsoo commented, looking up at the tree and the fruits which were way out of reach for him due to his shorter height. If the much taller Chanyeol had to stretch to reach them, there wasn’t really much hope for Kyungsoo unless he climbed

Kyungsoo looked around and noticed that it was the only peach tree growing around the area, presumably having grown from a seed dropped by a migrating bird some years ago.

Chanyeol plucked several peaches and stored them within the sleeves of his kimono before handing a few over to Kyungsoo, “Here, have some. You still need some supplies for the journey home, don’t you?”

“Yeah, thanks,” Kyungsoo accepted the peaches and took off his sash bag to put the fruits inside, planning to make some dried peaches for snacks once he was back at the shrine.

Chanyeol bit into one peach and once he savored the sweet taste of it, he squealed even more, “It’s so good.”

“You really like peaches, don’t you?” Kyungsoo chuckled, hiding his face behind his sleeve from just seeing how happy Chanyeol was. The emotion was certainly infectious.

Chanyeol nodded, still managing to smile so widely even with the half-eaten peach between the lips of his mouth.

“Don’t they have peaches back at Takamagahara?” Kyungsoo questioned as soon as they resumed their walk down the mountain path.

“We have plenty,” Chanyeol explained, reaching into his sleeve for another peach, “They grow all year round because it’s always summer there. It tastes different though. The ones here in the human world are just juicier in my opinion but there are others who will tell you that Takamagahara peaches are the best.”

“Hmm…,” Kyungsoo pondered, stopping in his tracks when he realized that they were now at the end of the path and in front of them was the standard red torii gate which was common fixture before entering a shrine or temple ground. Kyungsoo continued, “-by others, you mean the gods?”

Chanyeol turned around to face Kyungsoo with his back towards the gate. He held both of Kyungsoo’s hands in either of his, standing taller than the priest and looking back at him.

Chanyeol nodded, “The gods, yes, and some others too. All the gods live in Takamagahara and they have those who follow them around too. Like Inari has foxes and Hachiman has doves.”

“So you’re really not from here, aren’t you?” Kyungsoo smiled a bit forlornly at the realization that he and Chanyeol probably didn’t belong in the same world as each other.

“I’m sorry, no,” Chanyeol shook his head, lifting one of Kyungsoo’s hands to his lips as he pressed a kiss on Kyungsoo’s fingers, “-but I’ll make sure Amaterasu hears about her loyal follower whom I encountered in the human world.”

“It’s fine,” Kyungsoo flushed a little, his hand still held up close to Chanyeol’s lips, “I was just doing what I had to. After all, you saved me once and I was just repaying the favor. We’re even now.”

“You don’t even want to ask for anything? You know I’m used to people asking me for things,” Chanyeol mentioned, pressing the palm of Kyungsoo’s hand to his cheek and resting his face against it.

“No, I just promised to bring you home safely and that’s all I want now,” Kyungsoo affirmed.

“I will miss you, you know,” Chanyeol smiled, leaning into the touch when Kyungsoo moved his hand to tuck a strand of Chanyeol’s wavy hair behind his ear.

“I’ll miss you too,” Kyungsoo smiled back as Chanyeol gently released his hand.

Chanyeol then began to take steps backward so he didn’t have to break eye contact from Kyungsoo until he was directly under the torii gate.

Chanyeol then smiled once more before waving his hand and passed completely under the gate before vanishing into thin air.

Kyungsoo gasped at first, still surprised even when fully knowing that Chanyeol would cross over into another realm- although Kyungsoo didn’t really know how he expected that to take place.

Out of curiosity, Kyungsoo tried passing by under the torii, only to end up just behind it but still in the forest near the top of the mountain. He even tried knocking on the wooden frame and pressing his ear to it but nothing about it seemed off.

To Kyungsoo it seemed like a normal torii anyone would find outside a temple or shrine ground, even if it was really a gate to Takamagahara, although a human such as him wouldn’t be able to cross just so easily.

“Oh,” Kyungsoo said to himself, hearing some birds chirp in the trees overhead and cicadas already beginning to buzz. Kyungsoo could hear himself breathe in the empty forest, finally realizing that he was alone yet again and that he was already starting to miss Chanyeol.

It was probably going to be a longer way back to the shrine and back to his usual priest duties.

**

Before summer ended, Kyungsoo finally ended his trial period of living alone in the forest and returned to the main temple complex of the goddess Amaterasu in the imperial capital of Kyoto.

Kyungsoo never told of his encounter with Chanyeol in the forests, even after the senior priests questioned him regarding his experience of living in the forests.

Because the royal family’s patron deity was Amaterasu and they claimed to be a descendant of the goddess herself, the temple was hence related to the imperial palace and it was considered prestigious to become a priest of such a sect.

Kyungsoo’s father had pulled some strings and made use of his connections as a retainer to be able to gain Kyungsoo the opportunity to join the temple of Amaterasu.

Under any other circumstances, Kyungsoo would have been proud to now call himself a fully-fledged priest of the temple of Amaterasu, but yet he found his heart wavering towards Inari, the patron god of the farmers and the village folk.

All because of the encounter he had with Chanyeol and how it made Kyungsoo realize that he wasn’t chasing after status or symbol. But because Kyungsoo felt that he could be more devoted towards a god that blessed upon prosperity and abundance of the people and their livelihood instead.

But Kyungsoo himself didn’t know what to do if he were to just leave the temple and follow his heart. Certainly, his family would be disappointed that he let go of such an opportunity and Kyungsoo wouldn’t know if they would still even want to be affiliated with him if he did so.

Without a job and the support of his family, Kyungsoo didn’t know if he would even be able to find a place to stay or how he would even be able to eat.

Kyungsoo had half the mind to search for Chanyeol but that wasn’t possible either since they literally lived in two separate worlds. Even if Kyungsoo managed to find all the torii gates that connected the human world to Takamagahara like Chanyeol said there were, Kyungsoo didn’t think that he would still be able to see Chanyeol again that way.

Sometimes, Kyungsoo even considered praying to this Amaterasu, so that he could meet the alleged messenger of a completely different god. Kyungsoo didn’t know if the gods were all friends or rivals up there in Takamagahara but he never went through with it because it would only seem disrespectful of him.

Whether he liked it or not, Kyungsoo had to remain with the temple of Amaterasu, hiding the fact that he constantly wished to be anywhere but there, wishing to be wrapped in the arms of a man- or rather a shapeshifting fox that appeared in the form of a man.

The days grew colder and the night's longer as winter approached. In the last days of fall, once all the leaves had fallen from the trees, snow began to fall and even the small pond in the temple’s courtyard froze over.

In the mornings, Kyungsoo would prepare a plate of slices of the preserved peach he made with the harvest from the previous summer. He would then leave the plate on the porch of the back of a building within the temple complex that faced the woods behind.

In the evenings, Kyungsoo would come to collect the plate and find it empty. But it was the tanukis, squirrels and red foxes that came by to eat the peach that Kyungsoo left behind.

Kyungsoo knew this because sometimes, he’d watch from the windows of the second floor to avoid scaring away the animals that came by to eat. Kyungsoo never chased away the other animals, even if the peaches weren’t meant for them. Even if the one he wanted to see wouldn’t come there, Kyungsoo was happy that he was able to feed some animals at least.

But despite that, Kyungsoo still continued doing it, even when the jars of self-made preserved peaches were beginning to get emptier and he would have to wait again until summer for the fruits to ripen to make more.

Kyungsoo continued waiting for the white fox with the red bib just like he did so many winters ago when he was a child.

In the middle of the winter, a wave of colder than usual weather and frost hit. Everyone remained indoors, huddled near their hearths for warmth.

Kyungsoo had even heard news from the other priests about how the stockpile of crops and seeds in the countryside were destroyed because of the harsh frost.

The peaches Kyungsoo left on the porch were frozen solid and not even the animals that survived the frost wanted to eat them.

Kyungsoo tried boiling the peaches beforehand and putting them out while still hot, in hopes that it would be eaten before it got cold. Somehow, Kyungsoo had gotten attached to the animals that came by to eat the food he left behind.

Wanting to see if his idea worked, one morning, Kyungsoo boiled the peaches as planned and then threw out the water before running out to the back porch with the pot in his hands.

Quickly, Kyungsoo dumped the pot onto the plate outside and then ran back inside to the second floor to look from a window where the porch was visible, hoping that at least the pesky tanukis would show up to eat it.

Kyungsoo’s eyes lit up when he saw the dried bushes behind the porch began to rustle, thinking that some of the forest animals had finally smelled the peaches and were now coming out to eat.

Kyungsoo waiting in anticipation, pulling his outer layer of clothes closer to his person for warmth when a chilly wind blew through the window he was peeking from.

Out from the bush, a white fox with a red bib darted onto the frozen ground, leaving its footsteps in the snow before hopping onto the porch and sniffing the peaches left out on the plate.

Kyungsoo gasped when he saw the fox, cupping two hands to his mouth before quickly running down once again to the back porch. Kyungsoo was just lucky that that part of the temple was usually quiet during the day, so no one was there to find him not doing any work.

Kyungsoo ran out onto the back porch and almost dropped to his knees when he saw that the white fox was no longer there.

Instead, in its place, was a man in an elaborate white kimono whom Kyungsoo knew as Chanyeol.

Chanyeol was just there sitting on the porch, eating the still warm peaches from the plate.

“These are good!” Chanyeol cried out with eyes wide and round in excitement as he pointed to the plate, “How did you make them like this?”

“I just use sugar and some lemon,” Kyungsoo answered, feeling like he might cry from happiness too as he then began to laugh a bit.


	4. Chapter 4

Kyungsoo quickly ushered Chanyeol into his room, away from the freezing cold outside and away from the other priests and people who worked and lived in the temple complex. It was slightly nerve-wracking to navigate Chanyeol through the buildings and into his room without being seen but Kyungsoo managed to do it.

Chanyeol had managed to even bring the plate of boiled peaches together with him when Kyungsoo quickly pulled him into the building and scooted Chanyeol all the way to his room.

Kyungsoo was very sure that he wasn’t ready to tell anyone of his encounter with Chanyeol, knowing that he wouldn’t enjoy explaining to others what kind of “being” Chanyeol really was. It would be too much of a risk even if people actually believed that Chanyeol was a shapeshifting kitsune from Takamagahara.

“Your room looks different compared to the last time I was here,” Chanyeol commented, sitting on the futon that Kyungsoo had laid out for him.

Kyungsoo was throwing coal into the sunken hearth in the middle of his room to keep it warm and burning when he replied, “You’ve never been here, Chanyeol. You went into my room once thirteen winters ago after you saved me from drowning. This isn’t my home. This is the temple of Amaterasu and I only just have a room here to myself. I have to share the place with the other priests.”

“Oh, I see,” Chanyeol realized, eating the last slice of boiled preserved peaches on the plate he had taken from the porch with him. While still chewing on the soft peaches, Chanyeol continued speaking, “I don’t really know where I am most of the time. The human world changes so fast, you see. I just followed your presence and found myself here.”

“That’s fine. You still managed to find me,” Kyungsoo assured, huddling closer to the hearth for warmth due to the thin and poorly insulated walls that couldn’t do much against the harsh cold outside that winter.

Chanyeol remained on the futon on the other side of the hearth, watching Kyungsoo shiver from the cold and then draping a blanket over his body for warmth.

As a mystical being that wasn’t from this world, Chanyeol was hardly perturbed even the slightest bit from the cold. It didn’t affect him at all due to the fact that he simply wasn’t human.

“I missed you,” Kyungsoo admitted, pulling the blanket closer to his body, “I’ve been waiting for you. I didn’t think I’d ever get to see you again.”

“I missed you too but why do you say we won’t be able to meet again?” Chanyeol tilted his head.

“Well, we’re from different worlds and I’m human and you’re not and I haven’t even-,” Kyungsoo then hitched on his breath, stopping himself from saying something.

“-and you haven’t even what?” Chanyeol leaned backward while seated on the futon, using his hands planted on the sheets to keep himself upright.

Kyungsoo hesitated before continuing, looking down at the hearth instead of at Chanyeol across from him, “-and I haven’t even thanked you for saving me many years ago. I wouldn’t be here right now if it weren’t for you. For that, I owe you.”

Chanyeol’s mouth hung open in a low “Oh” when he saw Kyungsoo then standing up and removing the blanket from over his body.

Kyungsoo moved over closer to the futon and kneeled onto the wooden floor in front of Chanyeol.

Chanyeol didn’t have to guess to know what Kyungsoo would do because he was proven right shortly later when Kyungsoo prostrated himself onto the floor in front of Chanyeol.

“I am eternally grateful to you for saving my life and I would also like to apologize again for inconveniencing you in the forests last summer. First, I shot you with my bow and then you got injured protecting me. I have greatly troubled you and for that, I humbly apologize,” Kyungsoo declared with his forehead barely inches above the floor.

“Kyungsoo…no,” Chanyeol’s voice was soft but yet commending as he gently placed a few fingers on Kyungsoo’s chin to tilt the latter’s face up to meet his, “You don’t have to thank or apologize to me for anything. I did it because I wanted to.”

“-but still!” Kyungsoo insisted, locked in the gaze of Chanyeol’s eyes that seemed more “human” now, “I’ve been waiting for you for thirteen years, Chanyeol. Since then, I have always watched out for a white fox and hoping that it would be you.”

“I see,” Chanyeol smiled a bit forlornly as he assisted Kyungsoo back into a sitting position, “I’m sorry for making you wait that long then but I’m here now.”

“I know,” Kyungsoo threw his arms around Chanyeol, pulling Chanyeol into a tight hug, smiling as he buried his face on the sleeve of Chanyeol’s elaborate white kimono.

Chanyeol smiled too, hugging Kyungsoo in return and gently resting a palm on Kyungsoo’s back.

“I’m really glad you’re here now,” Kyungsoo sighed in relief, comforted by the warmth of being pressed up against Chanyeol and the layers of clothes the latter was wearing. Chanyeol also smelled so fresh, homely and inviting, Kyungsoo found out.

When Kyungsoo tried to say something else again, he began sneezing at least two or three times successively, soon beginning to shiver.

Maybe Kyungsoo wasn’t as resilient as he thought and had gotten sick from the abnormally cold weather.

“You’re getting sick,” Chanyeol noted, pressing the back of his palm to Kyungsoo’s forehead, pushing Kyungsoo’s hair out of the way.

“That’s obvious isn’t it,” Kyungsoo replied, turning his head away so he wouldn’t be sneezing on Chanyeol.

“Let’s get you warm,” Chanyeol suggested.

Chanyeol took off the haori he wore over his kimono, handing it to Kyungsoo, “Here, wear this. It gets cold.”

“Alright,” Kyungsoo softly muttered, accepting the haori with two hands.

Kyungsoo gazed down at Chanyeol’s haori that he was holding. The material felt heavy but already warm on his hands. Chanyeol was also now pulling the cast aside blanket closer towards them.

Kyungsoo sighed and continued looking at it before pressing the haori to his face. Kyungsoo rubbed his cheek on the haori, breathed in deep and inhaled the smell that was undoubtedly Chanyeol’s.

Kyungsoo muttered, “It smells a lot like you. I like it.”

Chanyeol did not say anything in return but he smiled as he draped the blanket over Kyungsoo’s shoulder, cocooning Kyungsoo in its warmth. Like on the first winter where they had met so many years ago, Chanyeol was once again trying to keep Kyungsoo warm.

Kyungsoo only lifted his face from the haori to look back up into Chanyeol’s eyes, running the back of his palm down Chanyeol’s soft and warm cheek.

Kyungsoo closed the gap between them, locking their lips into a passionate kiss that was full of longing. It was satisfying to Kyungsoo to be so up close to Chanyeol like this, especially after all the years he waited for the white fox to come back to him again.

Chanyeol parted his lips, letting Kyungsoo take the lead and slip his tongue inside during the kiss. Kyungsoo rested a hand softly on the back of Chanyeol’s head to hold him in place.

Kyungsoo was feverish, feeling warm and cold all at the same time. And somehow, Chanyeol could feel all of that radiating on his skin too.

Kyungsoo climbed onto the futon and Chanyeol moved further down the futon to give him space to come on.

Chanyeol laid on his side while Kyungsoo laid down on his back. Chanyeol nuzzled his face at the crook of Kyungsoo’s neck, feeling warm and yet cold from Kyungsoo’s skin.

“I would like to make love to you. If you would allow me to that is,” Chanyeol requested, breathing heavily as he enveloped Kyungsoo in a tight embrace with his arms around the latter’s waist.

“I would love to but I don’t know if we’re allowed to do this,” Kyungsoo seemed a bit hesitant.

“Why so?” Chanyeol questioned, nuzzling his face on the crook of Kyungsoo’s neck, “If I recall, you do not have a vow of celibacy or whatnot. You’re even allowed to take a spouse and have children if you desire too.”

“It’s not that,” Kyungsoo explained, “it’s because you know…I’m human and you’re not and I don’t know if that would be allowed.”

“Well, I don’t recall any rule saying that is forbidden either. Don’t you think so?” Chanyeol smirked with his face on Kyungsoo’s shoulder and eyes trained up at him.

Chanyeol snaked a hand to the obi sash of Kyungsoo’s black priest garbs, slipping his hand between the fabric and clothing, “-besides, I was never one to follow rules anyway so even if we can’t, it doesn’t concern me. I really want you.”

“Yes, Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo sighed, “I want you too,” Kyungsoo sounded like he was whining out of pure desire when he mentioned Chanyeol’s name.

“I know. Me too,” Chanyeol’s breath hitched in his throat at the sound of Kyungsoo whining his name.

Chanyeol moved to settle himself between Kyungsoo’s legs and began to take off each layer of clothing he wore, tossing them to the floor beside the futon.

The process took a while because Chanyeol’s kimono was rather elaborate with various layers and pieces but Kyungsoo wasn’t complaining at being blessed with the sight of Chanyeol slowly stripping in front of him.

Lying down on the futon, Kyungsoo looked up at Chanyeol hovering above him, commenting, “I don’t remember it too well but you haven’t changed at all in the past thirteen years.”

Chanyeol replied, “Well, time has a different effect on those like me.”

“I can’t imagine that,” Kyungsoo responded, not really wanting to think about it because he knew it was probably something out of his comprehension.

Chanyeol snickered, helping Kyungsoo out of the clothes he was wearing, “-I could say that you have grown up quite well although I maybe did expect you to grow much taller and bigger.”

“I think I’m done growing now. This is all you’ll get of me,” Kyungsoo bantered, lifting his hips up to help Chanyeol pull off his fundoshi.

“So, how do you want to do this?” Chanyeol asked

“What do you mean?” Kyungsoo returned.

“You know, I can take the form of both of a man and a woman but I prefer to go around in this form you’re seeing now because I feel it suits who I really am. I’ll show you something though,” Chanyeol pointed out, only wearing one last piece of clothing which he held open to show off his naked body beneath.

Kyungsoo’s eyes grew wide and round in amazement when he saw Chanyeol shift his body into that of a feminine form with breasts, wider hips, and a smaller waist. Kyungsoo didn’t dare to look between Chanyeol’s crotch but he swore he caught the glimpse of a vulva instead.

Chanyeol was also now revealing the extra pair of fox ears he had on his head and the long flowing white tail that brushed slightly against Kyungsoo.

“So?” Chanyeol asked again, “How is it?”

“No,” Kyungsoo refused, sitting up on the futon to hold onto Chanyeol by the shoulders, “You’re fine just the way you are. I like you for who you are. You don’t have to be anyone else for me. I just want you in the form that suits you the most.”

“Thank you,” Chanyeol muttered with a slight smile on his face, feeling further affirmed towards his feelings for Kyungsoo as he shifted back into the male form he was most comfortable with.

“You’re beautiful just the way you are,” Kyungsoo praised.

“-and so are you,” Chanyeol reciprocated.

It didn’t take much effort for Chanyeol to flip Kyungsoo around, so Kyungsoo was lying on his front on the futon, with his back facing Chanyeol above him.

In fact, Kyungsoo was probably a bit on the lighter side for his age even if he was pretty much average as a child. Chanyeol noticed that and felt how lighter Kyungsoo was in his hands than how he last remembered.

It felt melancholic for Chanyeol to think about how much Kyungsoo had changed in those years, while he had been pretty much the same. But they were together now, and that was all that mattered.

With each hand on each buttcheek, Chanyeol squeezed the soft yet slightly coarse flesh that was Kyungsoo’s buttocks.

Kyungsoo gasped into the pillow and instinctively spread his legs even further apart when he felt a finger prodding around his entrance, circling around the puckered hole and tight ring of muscles.

Kyungsoo couldn’t see what Chanyeol was doing, but he could feel Chanyeol kiss his butt cheeks as a wet finger teased around his entrance.

Chanyeol pushed his middle finger into Kyungsoo, not even up to half of the first knuckle before pulling out.

Kyungsoo never felt this way. This was his first and he was getting impatient by the moment. Kyungsoo whined into the pillow, pushing his hips backward and closer towards Chanyeol, who was the source of that feeling he sought after.

Chanyeol’s long and flowing fox tail wrapped itself around Kyungsoo’s thigh, simply resting there firmly but gentle, sort of as a reminder to Kyungsoo that Chanyeol was right there with him and that all of this was real.

“Oh god, just put it in. I need to feel you in me,” Kyungsoo mewled in a high-pitched voice, one hand reaching back to find Chanyeol.

“Shh, we’ll get there,” Chanyeol assured, purring, as he kissed Kyungsoo on the small of his back and teasing Kyungsoo with two of his fingers now.

Chanyeol caught Kyungsoo’s hand with his free hand, holding it tightly and intertwining their fingers with each other. Using his occupied hand, Chanyeol obliged and penetrated the two fingers into Kyungsoo.

Kyungsoo yelped at the most welcome intrusion, feeling a part of Chanyeol inside him for the first time in so long. Kyungsoo squeezed onto the hand he held with Chanyeol’s.

Chanyeol continued fingering Kyungsoo, making sure he pressed against Kyungsoo’s inner walls as he slid his fingers in and out of the hole. Chanyeol twisted his wrist around whenever his fingers were coming out, before twisting again in the opposite direction when they went back in.

When Kyungsoo relaxed enough and Chanyeol felt him getting loose, Chanyeol added a third finger before repeating the preparation he was doing so Kyungsoo could fully accommodate him inside later on.

Kyungsoo was now on all-fours on the futon, trembling and barely unable to hold himself up. Kyungsoo’s tongue was hanging out and drool was falling from his lips, being unable to hold in the unsolicited vocal expressions.

Now that Kyungsoo was experiencing it for the first time, he felt tremendously good to feel so full and knowing Chanyeol was doing it for him.

Chanyeol released the hand that was holding Kyungsoo’s, letting Kyungsoo’s knees give way and him falling onto his stomach on the futon.

Chanyeol reached for a pillow and placed it beneath Kyungsoo’s stomach, pressing Kyungsoo’s back down so his front would be lying on top of it. Chanyeol too straightened Kyungsoo’s knees so he didn’t need to be kneeling or bending over.

At the ease that Chanyeol was just moving him around and putting him into position, Kyungsoo was reminded of how strong Chanyeol really was. Chanyeol could literally pick up Kyungsoo and throw him around like a ragdoll if that was what he wished.

Knowing the fact that Chanyeol was probably strong enough to hurt him but yet chose to do the opposite, only made Kyungsoo fall even further for the mysterious kitsune.

Soon, Kyungsoo felt Chanyeol enveloping his body from behind. Chanyeol was hovering behind him, with his front pressed so dangerously close to Kyungsoo’s back. Chanyeol supported his own weight with his elbows to avoid pressing his weight down on Kyungsoo’s.

“Kyungsoo”, Chanyeol breathily groaned against Kyungsoo’s ear from behind, “Will you let me make love to you?”

“Please do”, Kyungsoo whimpered, pressing his forehead down onto the sheets and grinding his hips up into Chanyeol’s above and behind him, as the pillow beneath his stomach elevated his ass up to Chanyeol.

“You haven’t had anyone do this to you ever, have you?” Chanyeol questioned, almost possessively.

“No, I haven’t,” Kyungsoo almost cried out at the anticipation of everything.

“Of course,” Chanyeol murmured, pressing a kiss on the skin between Kyungsoo’s shoulder blades.

Chanyeol thrust two fingers into Kyungsoo again as his other hand worked on jerking himself off to attain an erection, which he managed without much effort.

Even though Chanyeol wasn’t human, as long as he assumed this form, he still had to somewhat abide by the restriction of human biology when it came to his dick.

Chanyeol closed Kyungsoo’s leg together, pressing Kyungsoo’s knees together. With Kyungsoo’s legs still pressed closed, Chanyeol spread Kyungsoo’s butt cheeks apart, kneading the flesh between his calloused hands.

Chanyeol spat into Kyungsoo’s hole, watching the frothing saliva drip into his hole and the rest down the crack of his butt, wetting Kyungsoo’s balls.

“I’m going in now”, Chanyeol announced as Kyungsoo mentally braced herself for it, pushing his hips back towards Chanyeol behind him.

Chanyeol did not keep Kyungsoo waiting this time, as he slowly guided and pressed the head of his throbbing erection between Kyungsoo’s gaping and moist entrance.

Kyungsoo sighed out of pleasure, pressing his forehead even deeper into the sheets below him when he felt the penetration and the pleasured feeling of being stretched and filled up that soon followed.

Chanyeol slowly pressed in his erection into Kyungsoo and eventually bottomed out, feelings his balls pressed up against Kyungsoo’s ass.

The warmth and pressure around Chanyeol’s cock was exhilarating and consuming indeed. There was so much pleasure he could obtain when assuming a human form. It was one of the many reasons why he often found himself coming down to the human world.

But this time and moment with Kyungsoo was special and different than the many others. And Chanyeol wanted to make sure he too remembered all of this for a long time to come.

Even if it was their first time like this with each other, somehow they fit together like perfect pieces of a puzzle that were always meant to be. 

With Kyungsoo’s back pressed below against him, Chanyeol began to move, choosing to thrust slowly but deep where he bottomed out almost every time.

Kyungsoo’s legs pressed close together increased the pressure he felt around his groin, which was pleasurable for both himself and Chanyeol’s.

Kyungsoo was happy to feel so full of Chanyeol inside him, and Chanyeol loved that Kyungsoo was clamping down and practically latching onto his cock with his ass.

Kyungsoo couldn’t help himself but push his hips back against Chanyeol, matching the rhythm to meet Chanyeol’s thrusts.

Chanyeol noticed this and after a while, he stopped thrusting to see what Kyungsoo would do. Kyungsoo did not stop, fucking and grinding himself backward onto Chanyeol’s cock with his hips. Kyungsoo wasn’t joking when he said how badly he wanted Chanyeol too.

Chanyeol leaned back on his ankles to watch Kyungsoo fuck himself back on his cock. The sight only served to turn Chanyeol on even more. Chanyeol had thought that it wasn’t possible to be aroused more than he was, but strangely he did.

Chanyeol wondered if all humans could feel this way too.

This was his Kyungsoo and only his only. There was no way now that Chanyeol would ever let any other person have him now.

Chanyeol pulled out of Kyungsoo so Chanyeol could quickly flip him over to lie down on his back. This time, Chanyeol spread Kyungsoo’s legs open so he could position himself between the two lower limbs.

“Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo panted, flushed with sweat glistening and dropping from his forehead as his naked chest heaved up and down from the languid breaths.

“Kyungsoo,” Chanyeol moaned back, aligning his cock and pushing into Kyungsoo’s entrance again. Chanyeol pressed his face to Kyungsoo’s shoulder and began thrusting.

This time, Chanyeol made sure he was doing the work, holding Kyungsoo’s hips down so he didn’t have to move much against him. Chanyeol knew those hips had proven to be doing a good job but he wanted to be the one in control here.

Kyungsoo clawed his nails down Chanyeol’s back, having to bite on his lips to avoid being too loud and overheard by someone else. In his head, Kyungsoo was cursing for a god he didn’t quite believe in. All reason had been thrown out the window because of how good Chanyeol was pounding into him.

Kyungsoo didn’t even know or care whether this was right or wrong, to begin with. In fact, how could something so pleasurable even be wrong? 

Kyungsoo literally saw white when he closed his eyes in the midst of holding himself back from howling out of pleasure.

While Kyungsoo had no previous experiences to compare this with, somehow it all felt so satisfying, as if he had just gotten to do something he had waited so long for.

Kyungsoo began to quiver and shiver from the spine, not from the fever he was developing but from feeling the pressure build up like a pleasurable pressure that rose in his groin.

Chanyeol could feel and see Kyungsoo begin to tremble, knowing that Kyungsoo was close especially by the way he could feel Kyungsoo’s walls twitching and closing in on his cock.

Then, Chanyeol stopped and turned Kyungsoo’s face to look at him in the eye.

“Chanyeol?”, Kyungsoo breathily asked, looking up towards Chanyeol in between his heavy breathing and shaking.

“You’re mine only, Kyungsoo. No one else will ever make you feel like this,” Chanyeol asserted, growling animalistically into Kyungsoo’s ears.

Chanyeol gripped Kyungsoo on the throat, leaving his hand firmly and pressed thereagainst Kyungsoo as if to mark Kyungsoo as his. Chanyeol continued thrusting and fucking Kyungsoo just like that, every thrust constricting the strong grip on his throat.

Kyungsoo felt the breath in him leave his lungs with every moan and sigh. It was getting hard to breathe and Kyungsoo screwed his eyes shut when he felt a single tear roll down his cheek.

Kyungsoo felt his mind going blank and his orgasm hitting him like a truck and unexpectedly. Kyungsoo came untouched, his cock twitching against his stomach, as he spilled white cum on himself and on Chanyeol.

Kyungsoo didn’t feel like he was even breathing when that happened. It was only then that Chanyeol let go of the hand around his neck.

Kyungsoo didn’t even know what was going on actually. He just knew he was feeling very good and Chanyeol was so quiet, save for the heavy breathing and occasional gasps that escaped him.

It appeared that Chanyeol was a quiet person even when it came to affairs between the sheets.

Chanyeol did not stop, riding out Kyungsoo’s orgasm with him as he continued thrusting even faster and harder. Chanyeol bit on his lower lip to stop himself from moaning when he felt his own orgasm slowly creeping up from his balls before it was released and Chanyeol came inside Kyungsoo, not even bothering to pull out.

Chanyeol had his eyes closed and he was breathing very heavily. It took him at least a minute to compose himself before pulling out and sitting on the futon in between Kyungsoo’s legs.

Chanyeol saw how his cum dripped out of Kyungsoo’s red and gaping hole, a sight he saw as marking Kyungsoo as his.

“Are you alright?” Chanyeol asked Kyungsoo who still lying back on the futon.

“I’m okay,” Kyungsoo sighed, still panting and catching his breath.

Ignoring the mess that was sweat, cum and probably even tears; Chanyeol climbed up the bed so he could spoon Kyungsoo, lying down on the same pillow as Kyungsoo.

The room reeked of sex and they were still stained with cum but Chanyeol and Kyungsoo were too tired to care.

Chanyeol buried his face in Kyungsoo’s black locks as he wrapped his arm around Kyungsoo’s stomach.

Kyungsoo rested his arms on Chanyeol’s as they were lulled to sleep by the sounds of their soft breaths that soon began to mimic each other.

**

Kyungsoo didn’t sleep for long and had to wake up shortly later, leaving Chanyeol who was still asleep on the futon.

Because in the evening, Kyungsoo had to perform prayers, maintain the altar and meet with the senior priests in the temple.

Only after he was done, Kyungsoo returned to his room with a plate of the last of his boiled preserved peaches.

When Kyungsoo returned to his room, Chanyeol was already dressed and awake, waiting for him in front of the glowing hearth.

It was actually less cold as night approached, somehow managing to be warmer than daytime due to a sudden change in winds and air, even when the cold was said to be last for a longer time.

Kyungsoo added more coal into the hearth, using a stick to arrange the sand inside to keep the fire safely burning for light as it was already dark outside.

“Here you go,” Kyungsoo said as he placed the plate down on the floor in front of the hearth where Chanyeol was waiting for him, joining Chanyeol there on the floor.

“Thank you,” Chanyeol smiled, picking the largest slice of peach to eat first.

“This is all I have. I don’t have any more peaches. You’ll have to wait until next summer for the trees to ripen but I guess you can just go back to Takamagahara and get it there because you said it’s always summer there, right?” Kyungsoo chuckled.

“Of course, I can, but like I also told you, the ones here in the human world are different and I prefer that,” Chanyeol responded.

“Well, summer is still a good five or six months away,” Kyungsoo shrugged and then remembering something he had wanted to ask Chanyeol, “By the way, what brings you here back to the human world? Did you really come to just see me? Won’t Inari be angry at you for leaving again? You seemed to be worried about being gone too long the last time.”

“Yes and no,” Chanyeol answered, looking at the fire burning in the hearth as its dancing orange glow reflected on them and inside the room, “I did come to see you but I also have some business to be in the human world this time. Unlike the last time where I was just wandering around because I got bored in Takamagahara.”

Hearing that, Kyungsoo laughed a little, hiding his mouth with his hand, “So you really got into all that trouble and I even accidentally shot you with my arrow because you were in the human world because you were bored.”

“It is that way,” Chanyeol snickered a little at the memory, “-but it did lead me back to you so it was worth it.”

Kyungsoo scooted over closer to Chanyeol in front of the hearth until their arms were pressed up against each other.

Chanyeol smiled, watching Kyungsoo resting his head against Chanyeol’s shoulder. Kyungsoo was so small and light but yet Chanyeol felt that the latter’s presence was the largest in the room, even when compared to himself.

Chanyeol also watched as a loose strand of Kyungsoo’s long black hair fell on his face.

Seeing that, Chanyeol reached into the sleeves of his kimono for a piece of ribbon and somehow managed to convince Kyungsoo into letting him braid Kyungsoo’s hair.

Kyungsoo got up to find a comb he had in a drawer and then returned near the hearth, sitting with his back facing Chanyeol so he could then braid Kyungsoo’s hair. Chanyeol’s tail was wrapped around Kyungsoo protectively, resting on Kyungsoo’s lap.

At first, Chanyeol gently combed Kyungsoo’s hair to ensure it was free of tangles and knots.

“So, what was it were you supposed to do here in the human world again?” Kyungsoo asked, glancing slightly over his shoulder at Chanyeol who was now braiding through his hair.

“Hmm...,” Chanyeol hummed as if in thought before replying, “We’ve been getting a lot of prayers lately, especially after the crops and stockpile were destroyed because of the frost. The farmers and village folk are worried that the plants and seeds will not grow again in the spring. So they’ve been praying for abundance and prosperity for the coming season.”

“I see,” Kyungsoo tried to understand as he felt Chanyeol tying up the end of the braid with the ribbon, “So are you going to go and help out?”

“I have to go observe and if we think the people deserve for their prayers to be answered, then I’ll do something about it. We have to make sure our actions do not disrupt the balance and order of the world. We can’t just do as we please,” Chanyeol answered, remembering something from a while ago which made his hand freeze with the comb still halfway down the section of Kyungsoo’s hair.

Kyungsoo noticed the sudden pause and silence and he turned his head slightly to look at Chanyeol behind him, “Chanyeol is everything alright?”

Chanyeol gulped and shook his head, his hand dropping from Kyungsoo’s hair.

Kyungsoo turned around to face Chanyeol, bringing Chanyeol’s face into his hands to look up at him. Chanyeol, however, avoided Kyungsoo’s gaze.

“Chanyeol, what’s wrong? Was it something I said?” Kyungsoo asked, concernedly.

“No, you didn’t do anything wrong,” Chanyeol spoke, remaining avoidant as he removed Kyungsoo’s hands from his face, holding the smaller hands in his own instead, “I’m sorry for lying to you but I have to be honest here.”

“I don’t understand,” Kyungsoo trembled slightly, afraid at what might be said.

“Kyungsoo,” Chanyeol looked away and then back again into Kyungsoo’s brown eyes, pressing his lips close to Kyungsoo’s hands, “I am not a messenger of Inari. I know I never said that I am but I did lie to you when I didn’t correct you for thinking so.”

Kyungsoo pulled away slightly, confused and unable to comprehend the situation yet. All at once, the fear that he was dealing with a potentially dangerous kitsune returned to him.

It was the same feeling he had in the forests when he first met Chanyeol. Kyungsoo couldn’t care any less if Chanyeol was just one of those pesky kitsune that deceived humans and not the messenger of Inari that Kyungsoo had thought him to be.

But above all of that, Kyungsoo was just afraid that he might have been betrayed and disappointed by someone he adored.

“T-then what are you?” Kyungsoo dared himself to ask.

“How well do you know the lore of Inari?” Chanyeol questioned Kyungsoo.

“I know a little,” Kyungsoo revealed, his voice breaking in fear.

“Do you know that there is not just one being that is known as the Inari kami? In fact, Inari is actually a collective of five individual kami so there’s not just one of us,” Chanyeol explained calmly.

“I-I think I’ve heard of that,” Kyungsoo replied, already thinking of an escape plan to leave his room in case Chanyeol might want to eat his organs like a malicious kitsune would do.

“That’s it, Kyungsoo,” Chanyeol said, “I am one of Inari themself.”

Everything seemed to all make sense now, especially when Kyungsoo recalled how Chanyeol never admitted to being a messenger and how he referred to Inari.

Chanyeol sighed, pressing Kyungsoo’s palm to his face and leaning into the touch, “I know I haven’t always been a good deity and the other gods tend to me for it. Do you remember the winter we met thirteen years ago? It was also very cold and I came down here to see if the prayers were to be answered. At the same time, I saw a shinigami entering your house and waiting in front of the pond where you almost drowned. You were supposed to die that day, Kyungsoo, but I just couldn’t let that happen.”

Kyungsoo gasped, with his hands still in Chanyeol’s hold. Kyungsoo was frozen to his spot, unable to move due to the immense pressure he felt from the revelation.

“Why are you telling me all of this?” Kyungsoo trembled, feeling scared but yet still so trusting of Chanyeol, who seemed even more intimidating than ever, “Did you come to finish the job and kill me?”

“No, don’t worry. I’m not going to kill you,” Chanyeol assured, lifting his face from Kyungsoo’s hand.

Chanyeol ran his hand down Kyungsoo’s hair, twirling the braid he made before resting his hand on the back of Kyungsoo’s nape. Chanyeol pressed his thumb into the bone in the middle of Kyungsoo’s throat, forcing Kyungsoo’s face upwards to look at him in the eyes.

“Why did you even want to save me then?” Kyungsoo dared himself to ask, almost stifling back a cry as his eyes began to tear up, unsure if it was from intimidation or his feeble emotions at knowing the truth.

“I don’t know why I did it but I just know one thing,” Chanyeol mentioned as he released his grip on Kyungsoo, “I claimed your soul that winter afternoon so you would live. I know I’ve been neglecting you in the past years, leaving you to your own administrations. But now that we’re together, I’m here now to tell you that you’re mine and that I own you.”

“Oh my god,” Kyungsoo gasped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/hajinnie)   
[CC](https://curiouscat.me/hajinnie)


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